By Patricia Cortés A decade ago, unemployment in Saudi Arabia reached unprecedented levels – 33 percent of young adults or women who wanted to work could not find a job. Threatened by the social and political consequences of this phenomenon, the government implemented a series of aggressive policies to reform the country’s labor market and, […]
While the United States struggles to address its most severe labor shortage on record, across the globe, Saudi Arabia faces a very different challenge. As of 2020, 72.4 percent of its population is of working age, defined by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development as the percentage of the population aged 15 to 64. […]
By Siddharth George Most people are shocked to learn that 34 percent of Indian Members of Parliament (MPs) face criminal charges. These are not trifling charges like unlawful assembly; rather, the majority of MPs with a criminal record—some two-thirds of the 44 percent, or nearly 30 percent of all MPs—face charges for serious crimes such […]
When democratic societies hold elections, voters face the task of collecting information on candidates and deciding who to support at the polls. In an ideal world, this system would filter out “bad” candidates, but yet, in India—the world’s most populous democracy—approximately 34 percent of elected national legislators face criminal charges, and nearly ten percent of […]
Although the World Health Organization recommends women wait at least two years after a live birth before becoming pregnant again, an estimated 25 percent of birth intervals in low-income countries do not meet this recommendation. As a result, the need for postpartum family planning services (PPFP) that enable women to adequately space births is high, […]
Worldwide, both mortality and fertility rates are on the decline, with the shift occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa a few decades ago. Fertility decline occurs in the latter stages of ‘demographic transitions,’ during which countries experience declining mortality and fertility rates as they develop economically. Demographic transitions have come to be associated with socioeconomic progress, and […]
Treatment-as-prevention (TasP) refers to the strategy of treating HIV-positive individuals with antiretroviral therapy (ART) to prevent sexual transmission of the disease to others. A landmark 2011 study by the HIV Prevention Trials Network that monitored transmission amongst mixed HIV status couples (in which one partner was HIV-positive and one HIV-negative) provided conclusive evidence that ART […]
By Emanne Khan Antiretroviral therapy (ART) not only extends the lives of people with HIV. It also prevents sexual transmission of the virus. However, knowledge of ART’s impact on transmission has been slow to gain mainstream understanding and traction. In 2011, the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN)-052 study received results from a trial of 1,763 […]
By Mahesh Karra Unlike many domains in health, the provision of high-quality family planning services is not only measured by the achievement of good reproductive health outcomes, but also considers the objective of helping women and couples maximize a complex and evolving set of preferences around future fertility and well-being. For this reason, the demand […]
Quotas for women in government have swept the globe. Yet, little is known about their capacity to upend entrenched social, political and economic hierarchies. The new book, Women, Power and Property: The Paradox of Gender Equality Laws in India, by Human Capital Initiative Core Faculty Member Rachel Brulé explores this question within the context of […]