Although the relation between economic development and income distribution is a long-standing issue, various arguments are developed even now. In China, which has been developing rapidly, the problem of regional disparity and income differential has become acute.

This paper examines the income inequality in Shanghai, which is a core growth center of China. Using the data on income distribution in 1985-2002 to be found in Shanghai statistical yearbook, income distribution structure is estimated using the Gauss kernel, and the changes in income distribution are investigated.

The paper also computes coefficient of variation and Gini coefficient, and shows that the income inequality in urban Shanghai reached a peak in 1995. On the other hand, when the rural and urban data are combined, the inequality seems to continue to rise. So as whole, Shanghai continues to face the problem of income inequality.

Analysis using Markov transition matrix supports the above conclusions.

The paper investigates decision-making process for attending antenatal care, in particular how women's education affects antenatal care seeking behavior in Kavrepalanchowk District, Nepal. It aims to illustrate the mechanism through which women's education promotes their participation in the decision-making process for deciding if they attend antenatal care. Both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods were used to enrich the description of their perception and behavior. The results suggest that empowerment of women, through increased knowledge, instrumentality (ability to manipulate and have control over the outside world), economic power, decrease of feeling of shame for childbirth, expanded support, attained by education may have resulted in increased number of antenatal care visits. The statistical analysis also indicates the women's education affects distance to health center, economic power, support level, communication with husband, and the number of children, all of which then, contribute to the increased antenatal care visits. Based on the findings, multi-sectoral collaboration such as investment on girls' education, decrease of women's workload, and income-generating activities are suggested to improve women's health seeking behavior. The significance of applying both qualitative and quantitative approaches in health study was also stressed.

In recent years, an increasing number of Cambodian rural laborers, especially young female laborers, migrate to work at factories such as garment factories. Those migrant factory workers remit money to their families, raising the income of rural households. Meanwhile, the educational level of Cambodian rural children is generally low mainly because of economic constraints to sending children to school. Using data collected in one village in Takeo province, this study examined the relationships between the factory migrant work and the schooling of children in rural Cambodia.

The major findings are as follows. First, schooling up to primary school level considerably increases the probability of migrating to work at a factory. Therefore, the expansion of job opportunities at factories raises the rate of return of primary education, which would increase the incentive of parents to have their children study at least until completing primary school. Second, the remittance from factory workers enhances the ability to finance schooling, and thereby reduces the probability of children's dropping out of school. The increased incentive for schooling and the expanded ability to finance schooling imply that the factory migrant work and educational level of children are promoting each other. Third, on the other hand, the expansion of employment opportunities in factories increases the opportunity cost of schooling, especially that for girls, because factories prefer female labor force. In fact, many girls in the surveyed village quitted school to work at factories. Consequently, the factory migrant work would maintain preexisting educational gap between girls and boys in rural Cambodia even though the rate of return to education of girls is increased much more than that of boys by the expansion of factory job opportunity.

A growing number of transnational citizens groups combating global environment and development problems have achieved prominence in the international community over the last few decades. Such civil society movements often make good use of modern information technologies and communication networks in putting forward their agenda, undoubtedly benefiting from the advancement of the information age. However, the influence and impact of the global civil society on international decision-making arenas still seems to be rather obscure in actuality. A case study of environmental conservation and development activities of civil society is outlined in this paper. The study indicates that while the global civil society has acquired a greater presence in international decision-making because of the use of advanced communication systems, its lack of representativeness and accountability, coupled with its ill-coordinated and dispersed advocacy activities, significantly undermines its collective competitiveness in exerting more power in the global negotiation on environment and development issues.

The UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the latest embodiment of a long history of goal-setting in international development. Unlike past goals, however, these goals are being integrated into national and multilateral aid strategies and have engendered new expectations and commitments to development by donor nations. They have also sparked new debate on the coherence of donor country policies and measurement of their impact on development. This article critiques these new trends in international development policy and proposes a holistic approach to enhance both donor commitment and impact and fill critical gaps in the design of the MDGs.

Three quarters of the world's poor live in rural areas, and the figure reaches up to 83% in Zambia (UNDP 1998). The poor, or deprived people in such areas are vulnerable to natural disasters and socio-political changes. They are exposed to fatal famine once drought or floods prevail in the region, often leading to loss of life. For many years, the rural areas in Zambia have not been left alone from developmental activities. On the contrary, several approaches have been applied. In spite of tremendous efforts, however, the rural areas especially the isolated ones have not been adequately developed to date for a number of reasons, including those of agricultural and economic nature. Consequently, these have contributed to the emigration of substantial numbers of the rural population, especially among the younger generation. Although some models of participatory approach have been developed by several donors, they have not duplicated by the Government of Zambia, mainly because all such models require heavy budgets, skilled human resources and/or organizations which are beyond the present capacity of the government.

It is in this context that an Asian Participatory Approach, CIRDAP Approach to Rural Development: CARD, was introduced in order to verify its efficiency and shortcomings in two pilot villages. The trial was implemented smoothly and has generated several lessons which have helped to evolve the Asian approach into the Participatory Approach to Sustainable Village Development: PASViD. There are five phases in PASViD, namely ①Preliminary village analysis, ②Implementation of micro project, ③Decrease numbers of the absolute poor, ④Leap of village economy and ⑤Creation of livable space and symbiosis with natural environment and urban areas. PASViD further emphasizes sustainable agriculture which seeks to halt the deterioration of soil productivity. Encouraged by the results of the pilot project, JICA initiated technical cooperation project entitled “The Project for Participatory Village Development in Isolated Areas in Zambia: PaViDIA” through which it is intended to apply PASViD in all the isolated areas of Zambia by the government in future. Self reliance of the villagers will be nurtured in the endogenous development of PASViD.

In Thailand a rapid deforestation is under way due to agricultural land development with the increase of population and development of economy. This agricultural land development has extended to the lands where agricultural land use was said to be difficult in accordance with the decrease of the development frontier. However these newly developed agricultural lands cause to create further degraded lands such as deforestation and abandonment of cultivation because these lands become infertile in a few years. To prevent the further spread of deforestation and abandonment of cultivation, the promotion of stable agricultural land use in the area is the urgent challenge. But there are few reports on the detailed analysis of the actual deployment of agricultural land development in the area. Therefore, this report focus on a agricultural land development project in Narathiwat province in Southern Thailand, where agricultural land use was said to be difficult due to peat swamp forest, and aims to reveal the current status of the project through both the deployment of project promotion and the management conditions of farmers participated in the project. To achieve these we will reveal two following points; 1) how the relationship between the project organization and farmers has developed including support systems and 2) what are the current status of production and operation of farmers according to the project deployment.

In this paper, it wants to pay attention to Vietnam in the developing nations where there are many nonelectrical areas.

In recent years, in Vietnam, the hydraulic power generation is remarkable for local electrification policy.

Focus on the case of local electrification policy at mountainous areas of northern Vietnam. It is the poor relaxation that the characteristic of the district electrification business is based with the power transmission system at mountainous areas of northern Vietnam. I take up the case of the district electrification business that is preceded with the ideal way in the policy of the new development aid. And I should practice the ideal way of local electrification policy that has last ability at mountainous areas of northern Vietnam.

International aid has been provided for promoting cleaner production (CP) in East Asia for a decade. Theoretically, CP has an advantage in giving as many firms, including small ones, incentives for pollution prevention, because it can generate profit by enhancing production efficiency and reducing raw materials. However, it has not been diffused in East Asia.

This paper examines the reasons government intervention and international aid is justified for promoting CP from previous researches. Then it examines progress, effectiveness and challenges of international aid for assisting cleaner production promotion policies from case studies of People's Republic of China, Thailand and Malaysia. Main findings are: (a) big differences is seen in the policy development and policy integration for CP among three countries, though all of them have received international assistance in a significant manner, (b) China has progressed most, but it recognized it in a different manner: CP as a complementary cost-effective way of ensuring compliance with environmental regulations, (c) international assistance has failed to set up market-based instruments and to promote green purchasing along the production supply chain that had been effective in promoting CP in industrialized countries.