Adolescent mental health disorders contribute significantly to the global disease burden. The estimates suggest that in 2019, one in seven adolescents experienced mental illness (166 million in total, 89 million boys and 77 million girls). The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these numbers. Despite their severity, mental illnesses are often underdiagnosed and untreated, contributing to high global suicide rates. In Tanzania, where 23.1

This article assesses a 10-month co-created universal school-based mental health (SBMH) promotion initiative for adolescents (10-19). The study combined quantitative and qualitative components. Pre- and post-intervention surveys were conducted in four schools in Tanzania (n = 400 baseline, 488 endline, with 100 intervention participants at both) and eight schools in Vietnam (n = 1,036 baseline, 893 endline and 436 in panel). In each country, ~90 qualitative interactions (interviews and focus groups) were held at baseline and endline with adolescents, parents, teachers and service providers (total = ~180). In Tanzania, multivariate analysis indicated significant gains among intervention participants relative to peers. Emotional literacy rose 9.5% (p = 0.007; d = 0.57). Attitudes toward help-seeking (p = 0.021; d = 0.50) and prosocial behaviors (p = 0.043, d = 0.38) also improved Active coping increased 15.6% (p = 0.006; d = 0.55). In Vietnam, emotional literacy increased 5.3% (p = 0.012, η 2 = .019), and positively, emotion-focused coping declined 14.4% (p = 0.032, η 2 = .015). Qualitative evidence reinforces these findings, and suggested spillover effects for nonparticipants. Overall results indicate that co-created universal SBMH initiatives can improve adolescent well-being and offer viable alternatives to limited adolescent-focused mental health services in LMICs.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development's call to leave no one behind has brought a renewed focus on vulnerable populations historically overlooked by researchers and policy makers. Key to this inclusive mission is generating “data which is high quality, accessible, timely, reliable and disaggregated by income, sex, age, race, ethnicity, migration status, disability and geographic location”. 1 UN Statistics DivisionGuidelines for the global data structure definition for Sustainable Development Goals indicators. UN Statistics Division, New York2021 Google Scholar Halfway to the endpoint of the Agenda 2030, tracking of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) has revealed substantial gaps in data on adolescence, despite increasing recognition that the ages of 10–19 years are a crucial life stage for accelerating progress against poverty, inequity, and discrimination. 2 Baird S Camfield L Ghimire A et al. Intersectionality as a framework for understanding adolescent vulnerabilities in low and middle income countries: expanding our commitment to leave no one behind. Eur J Dev Res. 2021; 33: 1143-1162 Crossref Scopus (4) Google Scholar , 3 Patton GC Sawyer SM Santelli JS et al. Our future: a Lancet commission on adolescent health and wellbeing. Lancet. 2016; 387: 2423-2478 Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (1465) Google Scholar We outline challenges in generating robust adolescent-specific SDG data and identify approaches that can deliver the age-disaggregated and sex-disaggregated data that are crucial to tailoring policies and interventions to improve adolescent wellbeing across domains.

Based on innovative, mixed-methods research, this article examines the entry of on-demand platform models into the domestic work sector in South Africa. This sector has long been characterised by high levels of informality, precarity, and exploitation, though recent regulatory advances have provided labour and social protections to some domestic workers. We locate the rise of the on-demand economy within the longer-term trajectory of domestic work in South Africa, identifying the ‘traditional’ sector as a key site of undervalued labour. On-demand domestic work platforms create much-needed economic opportunities in a context of pervasive un(der)-employment, opportunities that come with some incremental improvements over traditional working arrangements. Yet we contend that platform models maintain the patterns of everyday abuse found elsewhere in the domestic work sector. These models are premised on an ability to navigate regulatory contexts to provide clients with readily available, flexible labour without longer-term commitment, therefore sidestepping employer obligations to provide labour rights and protections. As a result, on-demand companies reinforce the undervalued and largely unprotected labour of marginalised women domestic workers.

This chapter analyses the new emphasis on happiness as the overriding objective of development. The view emerged in response to defects in income as a measure of progress, similar to the origin of the human development approach. After discussing the long historic origins and rationale of the view that societal happiness should be the sole measure of progress, it contrasts the happiness objective with human development, capabilities, and human rights. It argues that the more objective indicators embodied in human development, capabilities, and human rights, which measure the way people live, their health and education, and the freedoms they enjoy, are preferable to measures of happiness or satisfaction. Poor people may report themselves as happy even when their objective conditions are very inadequate. In assessing progress, human development indicators should be given priority, but evidence of unhappiness remains relevant, an indication that something is wrong which needs further investigation.

This chapter reviews the evolution of development thought from the Second World War to date, tracing the dynamics and interactions between the circumstances that countries faced, economic thought, and policies. It shows that on gaining independence, countries first aimed to promote economic growth, and while this was quite successful, problems emerged and the human dimension was neglected. A succession of alternatives, including the basic needs approach, was displaced by the debt crisis and stabilization in the 1980s, with very harsh consequences for poverty. The human development approach arose then, with the 1990 Human Development Report, building on basic needs and Sen’s capabilities approach. The chapter traces subsequent developments, including global agreements such as the Millennium Development Goals, and subsequently the Sustainable Development Goals, which can be seen as embodiments of the human development approach.

This paper explores the two-way links between Economic Growth and Human Development by examining the performance of some countries which have been successful in both dimensions and a few which have not. The specific aim is to examine the historical experience of six countries in order to determine how a system can move to a situation in which improvements in Human Development accompany and support higher rates of growth which, in turn, contribute to further improvements in Human Development as the basic societal objective.

This chapter analyses performance in human development over a thirty-five-year period, identifying the most and least successful countries in the main developing regions, on the basis of the classifications put forward in Chapter 3. The chapter finds that there are no unique patterns leading to success or failure; rather, there are alternative paths to either positive or negative outcomes, with varying combinations of economic growth, inequality, and social expenditures. However, successful countries on improvement in basic human development tended to have higher secondary enrolments and better female/male ratios in secondary enrolment. Successful countries on basic human development did worse on environment than the weak performers. The failure countries mostly had poor economic growth and had often suffered conflict. Looking at dimensions beyond health, education, and incomes, the chapter finds no strong correlation between success in basic human development and other dimensions of human development, notably political freedoms, security, or inequality.

This chapter analyses the role of social institutions in advancing human development and capabilities. Social interactions are a quintessential part of human life, and their quantity and quality determine a person’s social or relational capabilities, which are an important dimension of human development. In addition, institutions and social capabilities are shown to play a critical role in advancing capabilities generally and shaping individual choice. They are therefore an important, and often neglected, influence over human development. As well as their instrumental role in enhancing capabilities, social institutions help shape individual preferences and behaviour so that individuals cannot be assumed to be fully autonomous in decisions about the nature of the lives they live. The chapter analyses the concept of social cohesion, as an important condition affecting human development. It concludes by analysing some policy implications arising from this analysis aimed at promoting well-functioning social institutions likely to advance human development.

The chapter reviews progress across countries on human development over forty years in many dimensions. As shown earlier, there was general progress on basic human development, measured by the Human Development Index. This chapter also shows progress on many other dimensions, including a rising number of countries with broadly democratic political systems, a decline in crime in many countries, and a fall in gender gaps in education and earnings. Despite a recent upsurge of violent conflict, this was mostly on a downward trend at a global level. There was a more mixed situation in some other dimensions—for example, homicides and inequalities rose while trust fell in many countries. The most pervasive failure was on environmental sustainability. The chapter concludes with a discussion of areas that the human development approach has not adequately incorporated, including social institutions, macroeconomics, and above all environmental conditions which may threaten long-term achievements on human development.

Human development is often identified with the Human Development Index (HDI), and this is how the empirical work in previous chapters has proceeded. But this is a very reductionist approach to human development. This chapter identifies eleven dimensions that form part of human development, beyond the three incorporated in the HDI, by drawing on the work of philosophers and others. It then explores empirically how far the HDI represents these other dimensions in cross-country comparisons, selecting several indicators for each dimension. It shows that the HDI is not a good measure of a broader concept of human development. Using the indicators adopted and excluding those with strong correlations with each other, or with the HDI, left an additional thirty-one indicators to get a comprehensive measure of human development. To get a comprehensive measure of human development requires many indicators besides the HDI.

Promoting household resilience to climate extremes has emerged as a key development priority. Yet tracking and evaluating resilience at this level remains a critical challenge. Most quantitative approaches rely on objective indicators and assessment frameworks, but these are not fully satisfactory. Much of the difficulty arises from a combination of conceptual ambiguities, challenges in selecting appropriate indicators, and in measuring the many intangible aspects that contribute to household resilience. More recently, subjective measures of resilience have been advocated in helping to overcome some of the limitations of traditional objective characterizations. However, few large-scale studies of quantitative subjective approaches to resilience measurement have been conducted. In this study, we address this gap by exploring perceived levels of household resilience to climate extremes in Tanzania and the utility of standardized subjective methods for its assessment. A nationally representative cross-sectional survey involving 1294 individuals was carried out by mobile phone in June 2015 among randomly selected adult respondents aged 18 and above. Factors that are most associated with resilience-related capacities are having had advance knowledge of a previous flood, and to a lesser extent, believing flooding to be a serious community problem. Somewhat surprisingly, though a small number of weak relationships are apparent, most socio-demographic variables do not exhibit statistically significant differences with regards to perceived resilience-related capacities. These findings may challenge traditional assumptions about what factors characterize household resilience, offering a motivation for studying both subjective and objective perspectives, and understanding better their relationship to one another. If further validated, subjective measures may offer potential as both a complement and alternative to traditional objective methods of resilience measurement, each with their own merits and limitations.

The book provides a comprehensive account of the human development (HD) approach to development. It shows how it emerged as a consequence of defects in earlier strategies, especially growth maximization. The book investigates the determinants of success and failure in HD across developing countries over the past forty years. Cross-country investigations show broad determinants of success and failure, while country studies give detailed examples of the policies and politics of HD. HD is multidimensional, and the book points to the importance of social institutions and social capabilities as essential aspects which are often overlooked. Yet the widely cited Human Development Index does not measure these aspects nor many of the other important dimensions of HD. The book analyses political conditions which are critical factors underlying performance on HD. The final chapter surveys global progress on multiple dimensions over a forty-year period and shows that there has been marked and pervasive improvement in many of them, including basic HD—life expectancy and infant mortality, education and incomes—as well as political freedoms. But there has been deterioration on some dimensions—with rising inequality in many countries and worsening environmental conditions. The book concludes with challenges to the approach—in particular insufficient attention has been paid to the macroeconomic conditions and economic structure needed for sustained success; and social institutions and political conditions have also been neglected. But the biggest neglect is the environment—with worsening global environmental conditions potentially threatening future achievements on HD.