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178   PDR 38( 1)   BOOK  REV I EWS

of food insecurity are among the highest on the continent. Demographic conditions

are mostly as expected: rapid population growth, young age structure, high fertility,

declining but still relatively high mortality. Surprisingly, fertility in the capital, Ad-

dis Ababa, with a population of well over 3 million, is below the replacement level.

This volume presents a wide-ranging overview of Ethiopia’s demographic land-

scape. Chapters cover the demographic transition, human development, health and

nutrition, population distribution, migration, population-resource pressure, food

insecurity, and population policy. Most chapters are written by Ethiopian researchers

who make extensive use of censuses, surveys, in-depth case studies, routine informa-

tion systems, and service statistics. In addition to describing national and sub-national

levels and trends, many contributions examine correlates and determinants. A key

motivation for the book is an assessment of progress toward the 2015 targets of the

Ethiopian National Population Policy, the Millennium Development Goals, and the

new Growth and Transformation Plan. Remarkably, despite widespread poverty and

weak infrastructure and institutions, many indicators are improving rapidly and are

on target to meet these goals. The authors are reasonably optimistic about Ethiopia’sdemographic future, citing a supportive policy environment and substantial inter-

national support. The government is rapidly expanding primary education, health,

food safety, and family planning programs into rural areas. A notable exception is

maternal mortality, which remains extremely high.

Concluding chapters describe the national population policy, adopted in 1993,

whose main goal was to reduce high fertility and increase contraceptive use, mainly

 by expanding family planning information and services. Resource and institutional

constraints have limited the policy’s implementation. Nevertheless, the authors

predict a steady decline in rural fertility by demonstrating a substantial demand for

contraception. Nearly half of married women want no more children, and more thana third have an unmet need for contraception. The most recent DHS survey, whose

results became available after the book’s publication, confirms that fertility decline

continues and contraceptive use has risen substantially in the past five years.—J.B.

WORLD BANK

World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development Washington, DC, 2011. xxiii + 426 p.

The goals that would mark the achievement of “gender equality,” as interpreted bythe World Bank, are male/female equality in endowments (in health, education,

and assets), in economic opportunity, and in agency. Progress toward these goals

is to be valued both in its own right and instrumentally as “smart economics.” The

2012 WDR assembles a solid body of data and analysis to flesh out the economics

of gender inequalities, to examine the empirical and policy records, and to propose

ways forward. It documents substantial but uneven advances over the past several

decades in lessening gaps in education and health. In education, in much of the world

the female disadvantage in enrollment has vanished or even reversed (in tertiary

education many countries show a strong and increasing male disadvantage), but in

sub-Saharan Africa and parts of South Asia, women still lag well behind men. In

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mortality, the gender gap requires specification by age. A table in the WDR allocates

the total estimated number of excess female deaths under age 60—3.9 million in

2008—across ages and regions. Some 1.4 million of this total (1 million in China

alone) are described as being “at birth,” the result of sex-selective abortion. Excess

“unborn girls” and subsequent “missing women” are clearly appropriate concepts in

gauging gender inequality, though unconventional qua demography. Another 0.6

million excess female deaths were at ages under 5 and 1.3 million at reproductive

ages, both mainly in Africa and South Asia. In these regions maternal mortality, in

particular, has remained high, lagging far behind MDG target trajectories. Offered as

models to emulate are Malaysia and Sri Lanka, where dramatic declines in maternal

mortality were obtained at low cost by upgrading the quality of service providers.

Mostly, of course, the longevity gap between the sexes favors women: this is not

seen as a matter for gender-equalizing policy concern. On fertility, the prime factor

generating inequality is agency. Demographic and Health Survey data are drawn on

to downplay issues of knowledge, access, distance, and cost in constraining contra-

ceptive use, in comparison to the woman’s health concerns and her or her partner’sopposition. Improving women’s agency means ensuring their “increasing voice in

fertility decisions.” Keeping with the times, a companion iPad app is available for the

Report, offering flexible access and searching features. Index.—G.McN.