Word: key
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...early effort in education already appears to be a cautionary tale. Improving schooling in the country has been a key focus of U.S. development efforts, both to undermine the need for and appeal of religious schools (or madrasahs) and to advance literacy, which is 43% among adults; two-thirds of Pakistani women cannot read or write. In long, jargon-filled reports, the principal USAID contractor on an $83 million, five-year education-sector reform project, North Carolina-headquartered RTI (also known as Research Triangle Institute), claims to have "positively impacted" more than 400,000 students (out of 70 million school...
...reach the people - I saw it with my own eyes," says Nasim Ashraf, a Pakistani American who directs the Middle East Institute's Pakistan Studies Center in Washington. While living temporarily in Pakistan, Ashraf ran the National Commission for Human Development, a Cabinet-level post charged with raising key educational and health metrics; he gives higher marks to the World Bank's education effort in Punjab and to less well-funded efforts by other donor countries. (See pictures of Pakistan's vulnerable North-West Frontier Province...
Part of USAID's problem is a "bunker mentality" that exaggerates genuine security concerns, he says, noting that agency regulations prevented key personnel from accompanying even members of Congress who traveled there to examine aid projects. But other observers say the problems go far beyond security issues. For Shuja Nawaz, a Pakistan security expert and director of the South Asia Center at the Atlantic Council in Washington, the core of USAID's shortcomings is that it has outsourced "its thinking, planning and local interactions with the recipients" to Beltway contractors who are more incentivized to keep money flowing than getting...
...file past the city's famous Basilica de San Marco toward the docks to watch Venice's ruler, the Doge, board a vessel, sail into the harbor and drop a gold ring into the waters. This very public act symbolized Venice's divine marriage to the Adriatic Sea, the key to its Doge's wealth and power...
...Ford's problem is its low profile in what will likely be the key markets for auto sales growth over the next several years. In the first six months of 2009, the carmaker's U.S. sales fell 33% and European revenues shrank 39%. While Western economies look set to remain in the doldrums for the foreseeable future, most Asian countries are registering surprising growth and auto sales are bouncing back. India and China are particularly bright spots; the latter has surpassed the U.S. to become the world's largest car market. Sadly for Ford, Asia accounts for a mere...