CSDE-eNews Bulletin

March 11, 2008

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ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE DIRECTOR: CSDE Retreat on May 2 - -Mark your calendars; CSDE Small Grants Program -- Call for Proposals
CSDE WEEKLY SEMINAR: Bill Lavely -- Sex-biased Infant Survival in China
CSDE ANNOUNCEMENTS: CSDE's two Student Technology Fee proposals have been fully funded; CSDE 595A: Special Topics in Population Studies, Sustainable Development -- Wolf Latsch; Workshop: Introduction to SAS -- Statistics Core
CSDE AFFILIATE & FELLOW NEWS: Barbara Reskin -- 2008 recipient of the American Sociological Association’s W.E.B. DuBois Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award; Katherine Stovel --Receives a fellowship to the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences; Martina Morris and Bettina Shell-Duncan -- New Spring course: Advanced Interdisciplinary Case Studies in Global Health; Sara Curran -- Featured speaker at UCLA's Population Center; Adrian E. Raftery -- Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation
CAMPUS SEMINARS & EVENTS OF INTEREST: Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences Seminar -- Mike West; Environmental Anthropology Forum -- Melissa Poe
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES: Grand Challenges Explorations -- Grand Challenges in Global Health; PSPGH Pilot Awards 2008
TRAINING & EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES: Grants 101: Professional Grant Proposal Writing Workshop; Stanford Workshop in Formal Demography; Research Assistant Openings -- Human Services Policy Center
OTHER NEWS OF INTEREST: International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination; NIH Director Examining Peer Review Report: Public Comment Period Closes March 17; World Bank Publications Announcement

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ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE DIRECTOR

CSDE Retreat on May 2 -- Mark your calendars

CSDE affiliates, staff, and students are invited to an on-campus lunch and afternoon meeting (12-5) on Friday, May 2. We'll review the past year, reconnect with the larger CSDE community, and discuss future plans and emerging research areas. During the research theme meetings that were part of the Center grant renewal process last year, I often heard, "Why can't we get together like this more often?" Let's do it.

Suggestions for the retreat are most welcome, and I look forward to seeing you all there. Location to be announced, but it will be on the UW campus. Regional affiliates are particularly welcome, and we should be able to assist with travel expenses--let me know if you're interested in coming.

Shelly

CSDE Small Grants Program -- Call for Proposals

The Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology (CSDE) announces a second round of our small grant program for 2007-08 that provides direct support to demography research projects and working group collaborations. This developmental program is supported by our Population Research Infrastructure Program award from NICHD and the College of Arts and Sciences.

Priority for seed grant awards (up to $15,000) will be given to pilot studies and preliminary research by junior faculty and by mid-career faculty who are pursuing new directions in population research. Support for multidisciplinary working groups (up to $5,000) will fund series of meetings or discussions that explore new opportunities for collaboration and new approaches to complex problems. Successful proposals will exhibit outstanding scientific merit, innovation, and priority will be given to projects that have a high probability of generating new extramural funding.

To be eligible for a CSDE seed grant the applicant must be a regular (research, tenured or tenure-track) faculty member of the University of Washington and a CSDE affiliate.

The principal investigator for a working group application must also be a CSDE affiliate and UW faculty member, and the proposed working group must include at least one other UW or regional CSDE affiliate. A PI may submit only one proposal per round.

Seed grant proposals should include a 250 word abstract, a four-page proposal including objectives, research plan, and a summary of future research and external funding activities, budget and budget justification, and cv’s or biosketches for all key personnel. Proposals for working group support will follow a similar format, but the substantive proposal will be limited to two pages. Detailed instructions for preparing proposals are on the CSDE website at http://csde.washington.edu/research/funding/grantsDetails.shtml.

Proposals are due on April 1, 2008, and awards will be announced by May 15, 2008. Submit proposals to Josh Patrick, CSDE, Box 353412.

Questions regarding the application procedure should be directed to Shelly Lundberg, Director, CSDE, via email.

Shelly Lundberg, Director

CSDE WEEKLY SEMINAR

Bill Lavely -- Sex-biased Infant Survival in China

Friday, March 14
12:30 - 2:00 PM
Parrington Hall Commons

CSDE Seminar Schedule

CSDE ANNOUNCEMENTS

CSDE's two Student Technology Fee proposals have been fully funded

We are happy to announce that the 2008-2009 STF Student Technology Fee Committee has fully funded both CSDE STF proposals.

These proposals will fund many needed CSDE computing hardware upgrades. This includes student lab systems, a scanner, replacement terminal server, file server, new tape-backup autoloader, and a significant additional disk storage.

Software was also fully funded and includes all the critical statistical and social sciences applications we use including SAS, STATA, SPSS, SUDAAN, Stat Transfer, UCINET, Mplus. Endnote, Matlab, and LIMDEP.

Combined funding for the Student Lab and Server improvements is projected to be $261,000 for this year. We absolutely could not have done this without your support and especially your generous endorsements of CSDE computing.

Thank you!
The CSDE Computing Core

The full text of the proposals may be viewed here:

Student Lab:
http://techfee.washington.edu/proposals/departments/sde/2008-019-1/

Server Infrastructure and Terminal Server:
http://techfee.washington.edu/proposals/departments/sde/2008-020-1/

CSDE 595A: Special Topics in Population Studies, Sustainable Development -- Wolf Latsch

The idea behind this course is to introduce students to concepts, tools and ideas used in political economy to understand the way people use and manage resources as they construct livelihoods for themselves. Political economy tries to understand the way institutions work and how they mediate between individuals and resources, how institutions affect people's decisions to have children or invest in children: broadly, political economy seeks to understand how the allocation of power affects the allocation of resources. "Institutions" include markets but also non-market institutions and states and the rules that communities design and enforce to enable cooperation and manage risks. This course will introduce the concepts and tools necessary to think about human institutions, concepts such as property rights and exchange, and apply these ideas to issues such as "sustainable development", population growth, the management of common-pool resources, the historical evolution of institutions, and the dynamics of institutional change as they relate to populations, environment and development. Readings will include introductory texts on property rights and collective action, on the evolution of institutions in the American West, the diversity of institutions for common property management, on the "demographic transition" associated with economic development, and on the challenges of institutional change and reform. The course does not assume familiarity with economics.

For more information contact Prof Wolfram Latsch

For more details and a readling list, click here.

Workshop: Introduction to SAS -- Statistics Core

Due to the scheduling conflict with the PAA meeting and other events, we are offering the Introductory SAS Workshop on additional dates.

New dates for CSDE Introductory SAS Workshop, all from 3:30 to 5:30 PM:

Part I: April 3 or April 10
Part II: April 17 or April 24

If you’ve already registered for this workshop and are happy with the original dates of April 10 & 17, there’s no need to register again. You’re covered!

However, if you’d like to take the workshop and couldn’t because of scheduling conflicts, or if you’ve registered and prefer another set of dates, please register now with this registration form.

CSDE AFFILIATE & FELLOW NEWS

Barbara Reskin -- 2008 recipient of the American Sociological Association’s W.E.B. DuBois Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award

Barbara Reskin, professor of sociology, has been selected as the 2008 recipient of the American Sociological Association’s W.E.B. DuBois Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award—the ASA’s highest award—recognizing outstanding commitment to the discipline and a career of scholarship that has contributed significantly to the advancement of sociology.

Katherine Stovel -- receives a fellowship to the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences

Katherine Stovel, associate professor of sociology, has received a fellowship to the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences for 2008-09.

Martina Morris and Bettina Shell-Duncan -- New Spring course: Advanced Interdisciplinary Case Studies in Global Health

Advanced Interdisciplinary Case Studies in Global Health
UCONJ 504 / ANTH 469E / GH 590A (GH code in process, please check the Time Schedule for listing)
Instructors: Martina Morris, Bettina Shell-Duncan and Ann Kurth.

Overview

Why have major medical advances resulted in limited improvements in global health? Why are there massive gaps in population health around the world - between rich and poor within countries, and between wealthy and low-income nations? What are the most pressing health concerns, and how are health intervention priorities determined? What is the role of globalization - the movement of information, people, goods and money around the word - in reducing or, in some instances, magnifying the burden of disease?

Increasingly the challenges facing global health have come to be understood as multidimensional biological and social problems that require creative and innovative solutions that extend beyond a clinical focus. Recognizing that "health" is not determined solely by health care services, it becomes apparent that a multidisciplinary approach is urgently needed to understand the broader biological, sociopolitical and cultural context of disease.

The goal of this course is to take a critical approach - one that appreciates disciplinary perspectives, as well as the need for interdisciplinary collaboration - in order to effectively address complex global health concerns. The 3 credit course is taught by a team of three instructors from different schools and departments on campus, and uses an in-depth case-based approach to learning. Each instructor is responsible for leading a detailed presentation of a current topic in global health, with the class and the other instructors.

This year the cases will be:

Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (led by Prof Martina Morris)

Female Genital Cutting (led by Prof Bettina Shell-Duncan)

Tuberculosis in a Social Network of Immigrant Youth (led by Prof Ann Kurth)

While the topics vary, common and comprehensive learning objectives structure the presentation of every case: the biomedical basis of the health issue, the evidence base for treatment and prevention, the arguments for and against prioritizing this issue over others, the institutional capacity required for progress, the tradeoffs involved, and the ethical issues raised. At the end of the course, the student will know how to define a problem, identify the relevant contextual factors, critically research the evidence, and recognize complexities and tradeoffs.

The course size is limited to 40 (30 graduate, 10 undergraduate with add code) to permit intensive discussion and interaction. Sign up soon!

For details, go to http://csde.washington.edu/fogarty/Course2008/

Sara Curran -- Featured speaker at UCLA's Population Center

Sara Curran, Associate Professor International Studies and Public Affairs and CSDE Associate Director, was the featured speaker at the California Center for Population Research, UCLA, on March 5, 2008. Her talk was entitled: Migration, Migrant Social Capital and the Asian Financial Crisis in Thailand.

Adrian E. Raftery -- Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation

Adrian E. Raftery, UW Professor of Statistics and Sociology, CSDE affiliate
"Probabilistic Projections of HIV Prevalence Using Bayesian Melding"

Thursday, March 13
4:00 - 5:30 PM
2301 5th Ave. Suite 600

CAMPUS SEMINARS & EVENTS OF INTEREST

Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences Seminar -- Mike West

Mike West, The Arts & Sciences Professor of Statistical Science, Department of Statistical Science, Duke University
"Graphical Modelling in Multivariate Time Series and Matrix Data Analysis"

Wednesday, March 12
12:30 PM
Denny hall 401

Environmental Anthropology Forum -- Melissa Poe

Melissa Poe, UW doctoral student Environmental Anthropology
"Rhizomatic Natures: mushrooms, markets, and governance in the public sphere"

Wednesday, March 12
3:30 - 5:00 PM
Denny Hall 401

FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

Grand Challenges Explorations -- Grand Challenges in Global Health

The Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative is a partnership dedicated to supporting scientific and technical research to solve critical health problems in the developing world. The initiative's partners are the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, and the Wellcome Trust.

Innovative Ideas Accepted Beginning March 31, 2008.

Creative, unorthodox thinking is essential to overcoming the most persistent challenges in global health. The first vaccines were developed over 200 years ago because revolutionary thinkers dared to try an entirely new approach to preventing disease.

The power of innovation is at work in countless other fields, from space travel to the Internet: now is the time to harness that power to save lives and improve the health of millions of people in the developing world.

Grand Challenges Explorations will foster early-stage innovation in global health research and expand the pipeline of ideas that merit further exploration. The program will employ a new, fast-track approach to grant making, with short two-page applications and no preliminary data required.

First application acceptance period: March 31 - May 30, 2008.

Pre-registration deadline: May 15, 2008.

Initial grants will be awarded multiple times per year at approximately $100,000 each. An additional $1 million in funding will be available for projects that show promise. The first grants are expected to be announced by fall 2008.

Topics Overview: http://www.gcgh.org/explorations/topics/
How to Apply: http://www.gcgh.org/explorations/How_to_Apply.htm
Frequently Asked Questions: http://www.gcgh.org/explorations/faq/

PSPGH Pilot Awards 2008

Puget Sound Partners for Global Health announces the availability of awards for pilot projects in global health. We define "global health" as diseases and/or health conditions that have a larger burden in the developing world and receive inequitable attention.

Funding is available for up to $75,000, which includes indirect expenses. Projects should be one-year in length. Preference will be given to new research directions, investigators who are not now working on global health issues, and/or new research collaborations. The full list of proposal evaluation criteria is in Section B, below.

Please submit a short proposal (research plan of 4 pages maximum) using the forms below.

To be eligible, a Principal Investigator must be a faculty member at a nonprofit research institution in King County. Previously funded projects will not be considered for funding. Preference will be given to PIs who have not previously received PSPGH funding.

Applications must be submitted electronically by April 11, 2008.

Notification of awards will be in early June 2008 with an anticipated start date of July 1, 2008.

Please address any inquiries to pspgh@fhcrc.org

To download forms in Word format, click here.

TRAINING & EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Grants 101: Professional Grant Proposal Writing Workshop

The Grant Institute's Grants 101: Professional Grant Proposal Writing Workshop will be held in Vancouver, British Columbia, April 14 - 16, 2008. Interested development professionals, researchers, faculty, and graduate students should register as soon as possible, as demand means that seats will fill up quickly.

All participants will receive certification in professional grant writing from the Institute. For more information call (213) 817 - 5308 or visit The Grant Institute at www.thegrantinstitute.com.

Please find the program description below:

The Grant Institute
Grants 101: Professional Grant Proposal Writing Workshop
Vancouver, British Columbia
April 14 - 16, 2008
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM

The Grant Institute's Grants 101 course is an intensive and detailed introduction to the process, structure, and skill of professional proposal writing. This course is characterized by its ability to act as a thorough overview, introduction, and refresher at the same time. In this course, participants will learn the entire proposal writing process and complete the course with a solid understanding of not only the ideal proposal structure, but a holistic understanding of the essential factors, which determine whether or not a program gets funded. Through the completion of interactive exercises and activities, participants will complement expert lectures by putting proven techniques into practice. This course is designed for both the beginner looking for a thorough introduction and the intermediate looking for a refresher course that will strengthen their grant acquisition skills. This class, simply put, is designed to get results by creating professional grant proposal writers.

Participants will become competent program planning and proposal writing professionals after successful completion of the Grants 101 course. In three active and informative days, students will be exposed to the art of successful grant writing practices, and led on a journey that ends with a masterful grant proposal.

Grants 101 consists of three (3) courses that will be completed during the three-day workshop.

(1) Fundamentals of Program Planning
This course is centered on the belief that "it's all about the program." This intensive course will teach professional program development essentials and program evaluation. While most grant writing "workshops" treat program development and evaluation as separate from the writing of a proposal, this class will teach students the relationship between overall program planning and grant writing.

(2) Professional Grant Writing
Designed for both the novice and experienced grant writer, this course will make each student an overall proposal writing specialist. In addition to teaching the basic components of a grant proposal, successful approaches, and the do's and don'ts of grant writing, this course is infused with expert principles that will lead to a mastery of the process. Strategy resides at the forefront of this course's intent to illustrate grant writing as an integrated, multidimensional, and dynamic endeavor. Each student will learn to stop writing the grant and to start writing the story. Ultimately, this class will illustrate how each component of the grant proposal represents an opportunity to use proven techniques for generating support.

(3) Grant Research
At its foundation, this course will address the basics of foundation, corporation, and government grant research. However, this course will teach a strategic funding research approach that encourages students to see research not as something they do before they write a proposal, but as an integrated part of the grant seeking process. Students will be exposed to online and database research tools, as well as publications and directories that contain information about foundation, corporation, and government grant opportunities. Focusing on funding sources and basic social science research, this course teaches students how to use research as part of a strategic grant acquisition effort.

Registration
$597.00 USD tuition includes all materials and certificates.

Each student will receive:
The Grant Institute Certificate in Professional Grant Writing
The Grant Institute's Guide to Successful Grant Writing
The Grant Institute Grant Writer's Workbook with sample proposals, forms, and outlines

Registration Methods

On-Line: Complete the online registration form at www.thegrantinstitute.com under Register Now. We'll send your confirmation by e-mail.

By Phone: Call (213) 817-5308 to register by phone. Our friendly Program Coordinators will be happy to assist you and answer your questions.

By E-mail: Send an e-mail with your name, organization, and basic contact information to info@thegrantinstitute.com and we will reserve your slot and send your Confirmation Packet.

Stanford Workshop in Formal Demography

May 1 - May 4, 2008
Stanford University

This 4-day workshop for advanced students (graduate, postdoc, junior faculty; well-prepared undergrads considered) covers current topics in mathematical demography. We will support (travel, shared housing) for about 20 students. Apply by sending CV, and for students a recommendation letter from faculty advisor, no later than April 11, 2008.

Topics:
Transitions and the theory of transient dynamics
Stochastic projection and forecasts
Intergenerational transfers
Human-environment interactions

For full details, click here.

Research Assistant Openings -- Human Services Policy Center

Graduate Research Assistant for Washington Kids Count / Early Learning Programs (Req # 41968)

The Human Services Policy Center (HSPC) pairs applied analytical research with policy analysis to affect policy at the national, state, and local levels. Washington Kids Count (WKC) is a project within HSPC that specializes in tracking, analyzing and communicating data about the health and well-being of children and families in Washington State. We are looking for a graduate research analyst to participate in the following activities: maintaining and improving state and local level indicators of child-family well-being; conducting statistical analyses and writing up results for papers, fact sheets, and policy briefs on child well-being; working with community partners on identifying data and research needs; and presenting work at national, state, and local conferences. This RA will also be expected to assist with HSPC's ongoing early-learning analyses, including data analysis, performing literature reviews, and assisting with the editing of project deliverables.

Graduate Research Assistant for Early Learning - Quality Rating & Improvement System (Req #41970)

This position will work primarily on HSPC's Quality Rating and Improvement System project. The purpose of this initiative is to improve the quality of child care for young children in Washington State by helping the Department of Early Learning derive essential lessons about how to effectively implement a Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS). The project team will do this by directly evaluating the impact of three QRIS pilot programs and providing an evaluative profile of these pilot communities. The HSPC team is specifically tasked with helping build a statewide early-learning research consortium, which will tap into the varied expertise of many researchers at different institutions such as state universities and community/technical colleges, to provide the Department of Early Learning with a variety of useful information and analyses. The RA will work with the project director, policy analyst and other staff, along with non-HSPC project partners. Tasks will include assisting with the evaluation design, conducting research into QRIS systems and comparable research consortiums, consulting with DEL staff and QRIS pilot communities, and assisting with the development of methods, measures, and data collection protocols. The RA will also assist with quantitative data analysis, literature reviews, and assist in the editing of project deliverables.

Application deadline for both positions is March 18th

The Human Services Policy Center, an applied social-science research center at the Evans School of Public Affairs, is seeking applicants for 2 RA openings. These positions are for the Spring & Summer Quarters, with potential for continuation into the 2008-2009 academic year.

Full job descriptions and application information can be found at http://www.hspc.org/about_hspc/employment.aspx

OTHER NEWS OF INTEREST

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

19th March 2008
UNESCO Headquarters

An event will be organized at UNESCO Headquarters on 19th March 2008 to celebrate the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (21st March), giving an opportunity to reflect on migrant’s rights. Co-organized by UNESCO and a French non-governmental organization, “The Challenge of Living Together” this event will be comprised of three parts:

The opening of an exhibition on: "One Face to Another, Different Views on the History of Algeria and France, Yesterday and Today", produced by Professors Renaud Farella and Alain Degenne and their secondary school students; the exhibition will be open to the public from 20-27 March.

The screening of: "The Life before Mine", a French documentary produced with secondary school students who interviewed their parents on their origins, their exile and their life in France.

A debate on "the School and Immigrants", chaired by Patricia Sitruk, Director-General of the "Cité nationale de l’histoire de l’immigration" (a public institution dedicated to the history of immigration).

For more details, please visit the website.

NIH Director Examining Peer Review Report: Public Comment Period Closes March 17

The NIH Director Dr. Elias Zerhouni is mulling the final draft of the "NIH 2007-2008 Peer Review Self-Study" submitted Feb. 28, 2008, marking the end of the diagnostic phase of the peer review enhancement effort. The public comment period is open through Monday, March 17, 2008. To access the full report and for details on submitting comments please visit the Enhancing Peer Review at NIH Web site.

Last year, Dr. Zerhouni established two working groups (the Advisory Committee to the Director and the NIH Steering Committee) to examine the peer review system NIH uses to support biomedical and behavioral research. The groups were charged with identifying the most significant challenges and proposing recommendations that would enhance this system in the most transformative manner. During the summer and fall of 2007, both working groups embarked on an in-depth evaluation of peer review that included soliciting input from NIH internal and external communities and extensively deliberating about challenges and recommendations.

The final report reflects the outcome of the diagnostic phase and includes the working groups' recommendations to the most significant challenges facing the peer review system (details of implementation were purposefully omitted during this phase of the project). Dr. Zerhouni will carefully consider the recommendations and work with the Steering Committee Peer Review Implementation Group to develop an implementation plan. NIH will formally announce the new initiatives it plans to implement in the spring of 2008.
v Below are the challenges the report identified with some of the recommendations for addressing each of them:

Reduce Administrative Burden on Applicants, Reviewers, and NIH Staff
Recommendations: Reduce application length but emphasize their impact/uniqueness/originality; consider all applications as new, eliminating special status of amended applications; establish "Not Recommended for Resubmission (NRR)" to help applicants make faster, more informed decisions to either refine an existing application or develop a new idea.

Enhance the Rating System
Recommendations: Provide unambiguous feedback to applicants by modifying the rating system to provide an independent overall score and ranking; rate multiple, explicit criteria individually.

Enhance Review and Reviewer Quality
Recommendations: Enhance training for reviewers, study sections and Scientific Review Officers; create more flexible service and deadlines for reviewer grant submissions; analyze patterns of participation by clinician scientists in peer review and provide more flexibility to ensure their continued involvement in review.
v Optimize Support for Different Career Stages and Types
Recommendations: Continue to fund more R01s for early-career investigators to be on par with established investigators in application success rates; enhance productivity of the most accomplished investigators by refining mechanisms, such as MERIT/Javits, etc.; pilot the review of early-career investigators using generalists as reviewers to encourage risk-taking and innovation or uniqueness among applicants.

Optimize Support for Different Types and Approaches of Science
Recommendations: Use award programs, such as Pioneer, New Innovator and EUREKA, as starting points to invite, identify and support transformative research; ensure participation of adequate numbers of clinician scientists by providing more flexible options for review service; employ editorial board models for the review of interdisciplinary research that includes content experts and big-picture thinkers.

Reduce the Stress on the Support System of Science
Recommendations: Establish a "minimum-percent effort" for investigators on research project grants to ensure optimal use of NIH resources; analyze the NIH contribution for optimal biomedical workforce needs.
v Meet the Need for Continuous Review of Peer Review
Recommendations: Establish a periodic, data-driven, NIH-wide assessment of the peer review process; capture appropriate current baseline data; develop new metrics to track key elements of the peer review system.

World Bank Publications Announcement

Approaches to Urban Slums: A Multimedia Sourcebook on Adaptive and Proactive Strategies
Edited by Barjor Mehta and Arish Dastur
This multimedia sourcebook on CD-ROM synthesizes an extensive body of knowledge and experience in managing urban slums accumulated over the last 30 years. The key lessons learned and their implications for future work serve as a useful tool for capacity building and knowledge sharing for policy makers, practitioners, planning institutions, community groups, NGOs, and university students. Approaches to Urban Slums include 14 audiovisual presentations (photographs, illustrations, maps, graphic animations, and aerial imagery, along with voice-over narration) and 18 video interviews.

Breaking the Barriers to Higher Economic Growth: Better Governance and Deeper Reforms in the Middle East and North Africa
By Mustapha Kamel Nabli
Breaking the Barriers reflects the collected thinking of the World Bank's Office of the Chief Economist for the MENA Region on the long-term development challenges facing the region and the reform priorities and strategies for effectively meeting these challenges. It is a comprehensive reform agenda to "break the barriers" to higher economic growth, to ensure sufficient jobs can be created for the region's rapidly growing labor force. At its core, it requires the region's public sector-dominated economies to move to private sector-driven economies, from closed economies to more open economies, and from oil-dominated and volatile economies to more stable and diversified economies. This book examines some of these reforms and the complex issues surrounding their successful implementation. In order for the countries of the MENA region to successfully implement the reforms needed for higher growth and job creation, they will also need to address the fundamental weaknesses in governance throughout the region.
v Spending for Development - Making the Most of Indonesia's New Opportunities: Indonesia Public Expenditure Review
After almost a decade of successful macroeconomic management and several bold policy decisions, Indonesia is finally in a position of fiscal strength. Since 2006, Indonesia has freed up "fiscal space" of about US$15 billion. Equivalent to around 7 percent of GDP, this is the largest increase in additional fiscal resources since the 1973-74 oil revenue windfall, providing a tremendous window of opportunity for Indonesia to upgrade its public services.

Economic Implications of Chronic Illness and Disability in Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Union
Edited by Cem Mete
A significant portion of the population in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region are either in poor health or disabled. This research shows that the linkages between disability and economic and social outcomes of interest tend to be stronger in transition countries when compared with industrialized countries. Reasons for this trend include the prevalence of a large informal sector in many developing countries, relatively weak targeting performance of social assistance programs (especially in poor transition countries), and unavailability of broad based insurance mechanisms to protect individuals against loss of income due to unexpected illness.

Online: www.worldbank.org/publications
e-mail: books@worldbank.org
Phone: 703-661-1580 or 1-800-645-7247
Fax: 703-661-1501
Mail: World Bank Publications, P.O. Box 960, Herndon, VA 20172-0960, U.S.A.