This report lays out the challenge of human development in Bhutan. It is based on the first nationally-representative household survey, the Bhutan Living Standard Survey (BLSS), collected between April 2003 and June 2003. The report's primary objective is to inform the Bank of the current situation regarding some human development indicators. The report is partly filling in the knowledge gap on key human development indicators in Bhutan and will hopefully guide future policy directions. Some sections of the report have already been used as an input for the Country Assistance Strategy (CAS). On the demand side, the Ministry of Education in Bhutan had requested World Bank's assistance to help cost the Education Millennium Development Objective (MDG) and other sector objectives. This analysis was competed and delivered in Thimphu in January 2005 (and the analysis of the education sector laid out in the first chapter of this report formed an integral part of this presentation). The Ministry of Health did not express interest in the Bank's assistance in the analysis of the health sector using the BLSS data. However, the RGOB did express interest in Bank input addressing old age security and emerging youth unemployment and the report constitutes an initial step informing the dialogue.
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