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The purpose of this paper is to highlight the determinants of malnutrition of primary school‐age (five to ten years) children in urban and slum areas. The ultimate objective is to frame policy proposals for children's nutritional welfare.

In this empirical study, logit model is applied to 882 observations of primary data. The composite index of anthropometric failure (CIAF) is constructed to use an indicator of malnutrition.

The probability for anthropometric failure increases by age, birth‐order, female sex and activity of the child (child labor or home‐care activity) other than schooling. The parents' education, specifically mothers' education, can play an important role for child's nutritional status. Malnutrition is positively related with congestion in the household (number of household members per room), while provision of electricity, safe drinking water and underground drainage turns out to be negatively affecting children's malnutrition. The children living in slums are more likely to experience anthropometric failure.

From the policy perspective awareness about gender equity of child, adult education, growth of household income specifically of slum areas and improvement in living conditions (through public health works program) may contribute to enhance children's nutritional status.

The slums need targeted policy for children welfare regarding their nutrition in the form of provision of public utilities and income support.

From the methodological point of view, CIAF has been estimated as a measure of malnutrition. The findings of study may support academicians, policy makers and social activists for human development programs.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the demand side determinants of schooling of Pakistani urban children and the factors affecting boys and girls' schooling separately.

This is an empirical study using the non‐linear maximum likelihood probability (probit) function on primary data.

Besides other variables it has been observed that the poverty remains an important determinant of school participation. Poor households keep their children out of school due to their inability to afford the cost of schooling.

On the basis of this study a socio‐economic policy can be formulated for a developing country like Pakistan.

A development policy can be formulated on the basis of this research for the enhancement of human resource development for a developing and an orthodox economy like Pakistan.

The paper is beneficial to the researchers, policy makers, and social scientists for the enhancement of the level of social welfare through its findings.

One of the main sustainable development goals (SDGs) highlights gender equality. Gender inequality is usually measured through the Gender Inequality Index (GII) based on three main dimensions, namely, (1) economy, (2) social empowerment, and (3) reproductive health, as demonstrated by death ratio and fertility rates. The aim is to formulate a model for women’s empowerment towards achieving the SDGs. Specifically, the objectives include (1) comparing gender inequality levels among ASEAN countries and (2) analyzing regulations on gender and development perspectives in Indonesia. This research used the mixed method and panel data, namely analyzing gender inequality.

The results show that, in the common effect model, all variables affected the participation of women in the workforce. The analysis shows that the enactment of laws and regulations on gender mainstreaming has an impact on reducing gender inequality and increasing various indicators of gender mainstreaming, especially in increasing the participation of women in the workforce.

The purpose of this paper is to estimate those variables which have significant impact on the food security in a developing country such as Pakistan. The matter of food security in rural areas is of immense nature and needs to be probed. A number of factors are responsible for the situation. The current paper examines the determinants of three aspects of food security in rural areas of Pakistan, i.e. food availability, accessibility and absorption.

To estimate the determinants of each component, a series of models is created, in which each component of food security is a function of socio‐economic variables. Ordinary least square regression is used to estimate the coefficients.

It has been observed from the results that the production of wheat, rice, maize, pulses, oilseeds, poultry meat and fish at the district level is found to affect food availability positively. All the district, except Sindh, is more probable to be food insecure in availability. In the food accessibility, electrification and adult literacy emerged as the factors having negative effect. Child immunization, safe drinking water and number of hospitals have shown positive effect on food absorption.

This is a first study which measures the determinants of three aspects of food security in rural areas of a developing country such as Pakistan, i.e. food availability, accessibility and absorption. This study provides a new road map for the next studies.

The paper guides the policy makers and experts, showing how they are able to minimize the disparity among the different regions of a developing country such as Pakistan.

The paper will help to minimize the social disparity among the different segments of a developing country, especially in the rural areas, which is the most neglected part in most of the developing countries.

The paper presents the first study of its nature which has been conducted in Pakistan.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the factors that influence the decision of married women (in the age group of 16‐60 years) to participate in labor force activities.

This is an empirical study employing the non‐linear maximum likelihood probability (probit) function on primary data (3,911 observations).

Besides other variables it has been observed that poverty remains an important determinant of female labor participation.

On the basis of this paper, a socio‐economic policy can be formulated for a developing country like Pakistan.

A development policy (especially considering the gender aspects) can be formulated on the basis of this research for the enhancement of human resource development for a developing and an orthodox economy like Pakistan.

This paper is beneficial to researchers, policy makers, and social scientists for the enhancement of the level of social welfare and equity through its findings.

Microfinance is seen as the tool for poverty elimination. It provides loan to that particular section of the society which is not included in the mainstream financial system. The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of Microfinance on the lifestyle of women. The study is undertaken to address the question whether the Microfinance actually reach to the root of poverty and improve the standard of living for women who are considered to be the poorest of poor. This paper also aims to acquire the deeper understanding of the entrepreneurial skills which may or may not be inculcated with the help of Microfinance.

The paper is based on empirical data. The data were collected through structured questionnaire and purposive sampling was used. The respondents were the women beneficiaries of the Microfinance Institutions in the National Capital Region. Total of 117 women were personally interviewed to obtain the response for the questionnaire.

Microfinance helped to develop entrepreneurial skills among the women as acquiring loan helped them start their own microenterprise and support themselves and their family. Microfinance enhanced the participation of women in the household decision-making. As a result, after obtaining Microfinance, women were found to be more socially developed and empowered. Also, the gender gap seemed to have narrowed as a result of Microfinance.

The findings of the study are limited to the National Capital Region.

Microfinance will be beneficial for women and lead to their empowerment when they have control over the usage of the loan. Microfinance institutions play an important role in facilitating women to become self-reliant. With the help of this paper, one can understand the role of Microfinance in uplifting the marginalized section of the society.

The research work is authentic and original as per the understanding. This paper gives an insight into how Microfinance can not only eliminate poverty but also help women develop the entrepreneurial skills. The paper explores into the issue of how gender inequality can be addressed through Microfinance.

Today, the rapid increase in the population living in cities and new developments in information and communication technologies (ICTs) increase the demand for smart cities day by day. It is thought that limited public resources and crowded cities will be managed better by making more use of the opportunities offered by smart technologies. At this point, many countries around the world are turning to smart city applications. Especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, local governments have started to give importance to smart city projects due to the advantages of smart cities. It is thought that urban planning against epidemics will gain more importance in the coming years.

The aim of this paper is to examine the effect of talent management (TM) practices on employee performance (EP) among academic staff of Malaysian private universities (MPU) through employee engagement (EE).

This paper used both descriptive and quantitative approaches, while the research unit of analysis consists of MPU academic staff. A simple random and stratified sampling approach was utilized in this study while, the research sample consists of 314 MPU academic staff. A questionnaire was used to collect data from the target population, while partial least squares–structural equation modeling was used to evaluate the study hypotheses through a bootstrapping approach.

This paper results demonstrated that TM practices (succession planning practice, promotion practice and performance appraisal practice) have a significant effect on EP, while EE mediates the relationship between TM practices and EP in MPU.

This paper encourages university management to adopt and invest in TM practices for effective EE to achieve and sustain EP.

This paper has made a significant contribution to knowledge and to the operationalization of EE, EP and TM practices literature, which could help to develop theory, model, practice and research in areas of work performance.

The purpose of this study is to determine how project governance influences project success. According to the authors, such an effect is mediated by organizational support and project team cohesion. The direct and indirect effects of organizational support and project team cohesion provided helpful information. The authors’ objective is to contribute to the project management knowledge of how project team cohesion plays a significant role in project success.

Data were collected from 350 employees working in Pakistan’s oil and gas industry. Four prime oil and gas exploration companies were selected as samples based on their contribution to the revenue. SPSS v23 and AMOS v23 were used for constructing structural equation modeling and path analysis to examine the direct and indirect effects.

The results revealed that project governance is positively related to project success. Furthermore, organizational support and project team cohesion mediated the relationship between project governance and project success.

Team cohesion has been primarily a topic of interest in sports psychology literature, education and medical sciences. There is an expressed need to investigate team cohesion issues in the broad domain of organizational development, specifically the project management literature. This study contributed by discussing team cohesion in the project context. Second, project governance was investigated using the conservation of resources theory. The lens of intellectual capital was applied to examine intangible resources of project governance like rules, regulations and directives for project success.

This study aims to proposed that blockchain helps the organization improve supply chain (SC) performance by improving integration, agility and security through real-time information sharing, end-to-end visibility, transparency, data management, immutability, irrevocable information and cyber-security platforms.

This study has made an initial effort toward proposing a framework that shows the problems and challenges for the O&G SC under its segments (upstream, midstream and downstream) and provides the interlink among blockchain properties for SCM problems. SC managers were selected for survey questionnaires from the Pakistan O&G industries.

This study analyzes the impact of blockchain-enabled SC on firm performance with an understanding of the SC robustness capabilities as a mediator. The result revealed that the SC manager believes that the blockchain-enabled SC has a positive and significant on firm performance and robustness capabilities.

Blockchain technology is reflected as high-tech to support the firm process, responses and methods. The technology helps eliminate bottlenecks, avoid uncertainties and improve decision-making, leading to improved SC functions. This study guides managers about the potential problems of existing SC and how blockchain solves SC problems more effectively.

The oil and gas (O&G) sectors are neglected by researchers, and there are limited studies on O&G supply chain management (SCM). Additionally, no empirical evidence suggests implementing blockchain for O&G as a solution for potential problems. Furthermore, present the roadmap to other industries those having complex SC networks for the implication of blockchain to improve the SC performance.