The Fifth Decade

An indispensable and insightful roadmap for women entering the shifting landscape of life in the middle decades. With balanced, accessible, and humorous discussions of female physiology and psychology as well as current treatment options, author and psychologist Deborah R. Wagner PhD, provides an insightful and inspiring forum to help her readers get comfortable with the volatile, powerful, and colorful decades of life in the forties and fifties. With added advice for families—including a segment for partners and children—as well as candid discussions on the impact of unanticipated (but interconnected) conditions such as anxiety, depression, changing body image, loss of empathy, nurturing, and empty nesting, Dr. Wagner delivers a potent blend of science and comfort in a voice that will resonate with women of all ages. The Fifth Decade provides an essential resource to women and their families experiencing the shifts that come with the midlife years.

Asia proved resilient to the effects of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, but sustaining rapid growth became more difficult afterward. Development challenges intensified, the global development agenda became more ambitious, and new sources of development finance emerged. This volume shows how the Asian Development Bank (ADB) continued to reform in order to meet these challenges. A new long-term strategic framework, Strategy 2020, was launched in 2008, to respond to the changing needs of the region. A midterm review of Strategy 2020 was released in 2014, further refining and adjusting priorities in order for ADB to remain relevant and responsive to borrowers. Various organizational changes were introduced, internal business processes were improved, and several new instruments were adopted as part of ADB's efforts to become "stronger, better, faster." ADB's lending capacity expanded significantly, with the fifth general capital increase in 2009, followed by the unique and groundbreaking combination of the Asian Development Fund portfolio with the ordinary capital resources balance sheet approved in 2015. Lending reached record levels in 2015 and 2016, exceeding the earlier spike in 2009 when ADB had responded to the needs of countries affected by the global economic crisis. ADB also enhanced its accountability and results orientation, becoming the first multilateral development bank to adopt a corporate results framework in 2008.