1. CITY GOVERNANCE AND ADMINISTRATION

The short history of Khon Kaen dates back to August 20, 1935, when there was a Royal Decree to promulgate the City of Khon Kaen. The city is currently headed by the 33rd Mayor; Mr. Peerapon Pattanapeeradej is the first to be directly elected. When the city was promulgated by the Royal Decree in 1935, its boundary included only 4.031 square kilometers. The city limit was later expanded to 40 square kilometers in 1972, which is now the total administrative area of the city. The built up area extends beyond the administrative boundaries.

1.1. Responsibilities

According to the Royal Decree promulgated in 1935 and amended in 1999, the city is responsible for 22 specific areas.

1. keeping the city in orderliness,
2. providing and maintaining roads and canals for public transportation,
3. keeping the city clean and collecting and disposing garbage,
4. preventing the spread of communicable diseases,
5. protecting from and extinguishing fires,
6. providing education to the residents,
7. promoting the welfare of children, youth, elderly and the disabled,
8. maintaining and promoting cultural values,
9. providing clean water to the public,
10. operating a slaughter house,
11. providing health facilities,
12. allocating the budget for construction of sewers,
13. providing public latrines,
14. providing electricity and light to the public walk ways,
15. operating or administrating a pawn shop,
16. providing maternal and child health and welfare, and other health services,
17. controlling and promoting food hygiene,
18. managing the spread and curtailing the growth of squatter houses,
19. managing the public bus depot or shipping pier,
20. issuing construction permits,
21. promoting tourism, and
22. being responsive to all other responsibilities as stipulated by laws.

It can be seen that the responsibly and jurisdiction of the city are broad and comprehensive.

1.2. Administrative Structure

According to the Royal Decree amended in 1953, all municipalities in Thailand are divided into two branches, Executive Branch and Legislative Branch. The Executive Branch is headed by the directly elected Mayor. There are also four Deputy Mayors who were appointed by the Mayor.

The Municipal Council of Khon Kaen City has 24 members. This Council is headed by the Chairman of the Council. The terms of both the Executive Members and the Municipal Council Members are four years. The responsibilities of the Municipal Council are to review and approve the annual budget and pass the municipal ordinances. The Mayor and his deputies, or the executive members, are in charge of policy formulation, submitting or making recommendation to the Municipal Council for reviewing and passing the recommendation into city ordinance, and supervising the operations of the municipality and its employees.

The Administrative work of the Mayor of Khon Kaen is assisted by the Municipal Clerk (City Manager), who has two Deputy Municipal Clerks. The Municipal Clerk is responsible for coordination of the work of various Bureaus and Divisions within the Office of the Municipality. The organization chart of the Office of the Municipality is shown in Figure 7.1.

As for the members of staff, the Municipality of Khon Kaen has 1,303 employees, of which 449 are teachers in the 4 schools operated and under the jurisdiction of the Office of the Municipality. The total budget in 2004 amounted to approximately 428 million Baht, of which 78 percent came from central government appropriations. Tax revenue accounts for less than one-fourth of the total city budget. Therefore, it is unlikely that the Municipality will be financially independent from the central government, at least for the foreseeable future.

Figure 7.1 Organization chart of the Khon Kaen Municipality

1.3. Selected Projects and Achievement

The Municipality of Khon Kaen emphasizes human capital development and providing free education for all. The Municipality oversees four schools under its jurisdiction. The total number of students that the Municipality has to look after is 600. As the language and communication is considered important for preparing the future labor force of the city in the services industries, all four schools offer courses in English and Chinese in addition to Thai language. The Municipality has a clear policy of creating a good environment for learning in all schools. The policy is also to make students happy with learning.

School bus services are provided to students in three routes within the city limit free of charge highlighting the emphasis on education quality to children in the Municipal Area. About half of the students take advantage of the free services, which saves the costs of taking children to schools for the parents, and at the same time reduces the problem of traffic congestion during the rush school hours. School children are also trained to be responsible and environmentally conscious citizens. All schools of the Municipality together have organized a regular event called “Big Cleaning Day.” The clear objective of the event is to promote parents and children to fully participate in the city garbage disposal through self-help scheme. The events are organized regularly three times a year, on 5 June, 12 August, and 5 December; all are important holidays in Thailand.

It is estimated that an average 160 parents and children and 40,184 residents participate in one of there organized activities. The activities include cleaning the bus station, public telephone booths, temples, schools, markets, and public parks. A special emphasis is placed on sifting and sorting as well as disposing garbage. This helps reduce the cost and budget of the city for collecting garbage considerably.

2. MDG STATISCAL DATA

This statistical part of the report weaves together two different, but integrally related stories. One concerns the condition of the city on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This part describes the condition of the city’s population on its growth, reproductive health, poverty, education, and the general quality of life that is basic to the UN MDGs. The story is one of considerable progress, where we also try to explain what policies and other conditions led to this progress. It also tries to show what remains to be done and how the city might address the current problems to achieve the UN’s MDGs.

The related story is one of data. What kind of information does Khon Kaen municipality have about its population? Further, is this information what the city needs to help chart a course for the improvement of the lives of its people? If not, what changes need to be made in data collection that will give the city leaders the kind of information they need to develop policies and projects to improve the quality of life of its citizens.

We shall begin with basic population data size, birth and death rates and reproductive health. From there, we move to poverty, education, the position of women, and to various other measures of the quality of life.

2.1. Population Growth and Reproductive Health

The two are closely related. As many of the less developed countries, Thailand began the last half of the last century with high birth and death rates, or what is often called the traditional demographic regime. After 1945, the death rate fell rapidly while fertility remained high, giving the country a period of rapid population growth, often near three percent per year. This past high fertility was closely associated with low levels of reproductive health. Typically, high fertility is associated with high infant and maternal mortality. After 1945 the new mortality reducing technology that became available after World War II helped Thailand reduce its mortality. Then in 1969-70 the country adopted a national family planning program, which was very successful in reducing fertility. Contraceptive use became wide spread, and along with that infant and maternal mortality declined dramatically. Thus, as is usual, the closing of the demographic transition brought with it high levels of reproductive health. This national movement was played out in Khon Kaen City.

Population Growth and Vital Statistics

While we can track this movement at the national level, it becomes more difficult when we come to the level of the Municipality, and here we have one of the major problems facing the city as it attempts to provide a higher quality of life for its citizens. As we showed in the 2000 study Khon Kaen municipality data on death and birth rates do not reflect the actual condition in the city. This is because births and deaths are registered by the place of occurrence rather than place of residence of the person. Thus when Khon Kaen built a new Maternity Hospital in 1973, the birth rate jumped from 20 to 30; again it jumped from 30 to 95 when more new maternity services came on line in 1980. The city’s boundaries were also increased in 1972, bringing a sharp increase simply from the inclusion of previous rural areas into the city’s boundaries.

These discrepancies led us to model the city’s population growth using national birth and death rates, and estimating the in and out migration. This provided us with a plausible pattern of the dynamics, but left us with municipality data that were really inadequate for effective planning. Table 1 shows the official data of the municipality. Figure 2 shows the recorded and modeled growth and vital statistics.

Table 7.1 Selected welfare and health data

Figure 7.2 Khon Kae population official and modelled data

Although our modeled data give us what all city and university participants agreed was a plausible scenario, they also show that the official data available to city administrators are not adequate for planning for the future. Moreover, this is not a problem for which the city administration can provide a solution. This is a national problem which will require changes in vital statistics registration procedures.

Family Planning

The birth rates at both national and Municipality levels have declined rapidly since 1970, largely due to the work of the national health program. This program steadily expanded coverage of both maternal and child health and family planning services, building first the provincial centers, then moving to provide clinics at the district and sub district levels. This meant that rural services came to be on a par with urban services, and the contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) rose from about 10 percent of the relevant population in 1960 to over 70 percent by 1985. Today the CPR in Khon Kaen is estimated at 87 percent. In effect the society has been what is called a “contracepting society” for more than the past two decades. The modeled number of births for Khon Kaen shows the effects of past population growth. The number of births rose through 1985, despite the decline in fertility. This is explained by past population growth which eventually increased the number of women entering child bearing years through 1985. Then there is a slight dip and a small rise again, reflecting what demographers calls “the echo effect.

Infant and Maternal Mortality

The impact of expanded health and family planning services had a dramatic impact on both infant and maternal mortality. Infant mortality in Thailand overall was estimated at about 25 per 1000 live births in 1970. This already represented a dramatic decline from about 90 in 1950, due largely to the introduction of the new medical technology for the control of infectious diseases that the WHO was promoting after World War II. Thailand was an active partner in this movement to control mortality, and it is reflected clearly in the fall of the national infant mortality rate. The same was true of the maternal mortality rate. Early statistics are not readily available, but by 1970 the MMR for Thailand stood at about 25 per 10,000 live births. This most likely reflects a substantial decline from rates that were probably two or three times that in 1950. Data on MMR for Khon Kaen are not available until 1981, when the rate was 6, or about 2 points below the then national rate.

With the advent of family planning, both Infant and Maternal mortality declined further. Maternal mortality declined from 6 to about 4 today. The infant mortality for Khon Kaen was estimated at 9.3 in 1970. Thereafter it fluctuated with a slight downward trend until it reached 4.3 in 2003. Clearly this shows improvement in maternal and child health. Figure 7.3 provides these data.<

Figure 7.3 Khon Kaen CPR, IMR and MMR

Child Mortality

The expansion of health services, especially immunization, has also helped to reduce national child mortality, but the data for Khon Kaen show a disturbing trend. The mortality rate of children under 5 has hovered around 6 to 10 per 1000 in the period 1992-2001, for which data are available. Thereafter, the rate rose to less than 8 per 1000 children. The explanation here is that there was an under reporting of child mortality in Khon Kaen during the earlier years, particularly before 1994. Due to more completeness of data in more recent years, the period between 1995 and 1997 saw the increase in child mortality rate. Given that the quality of data has improved considerably in more recent time, it can be said that the child mortality rate in Khon Kaen has gradually declined to below 8 after 2000. This trend of declining child mortality was corroborated by the trend of near universal coverage of child immunization after 1994.

Teenage Pregnancy

Another aspect of reproductive health lies in teenage pregnancy. The Thai national family planning program has had a remarkable impact in reducing fertility among married couples. But we have recently seen a rise in teenage pregnancy that is disturbing and as yet not well understood. Indirect estimates of teenage pregnancy from the service statistics in maternal and child ward were available only from 1999. Data on the age of women who have their birth delivered at the maternal ward of Khon Kaen Provincial Hospital and at the maternal ward of the Region 6 Hospital were analyzed by age and socio-economic and demographic characteristics of husbands. Among the births to women age 15-19 years, it was found that in 1999 about 17.7 percent of them were classified as unwanted pregnancy due to no clear information on the part of husbands and that the women still identified themselves as single or “Miss” in the registered cards. The rates have risen alarmingly to 26.5 percent in 2003. This trend is consistent with the general impression that teenagers are more permissive and become sexually active at earlier ages now than before. Clearly reproductive health for teenage mothers is urgently needed in Khon Kaen and in many major larger cities in Thailand. This reflects another problem that requires systematic research.

HIV/AIDS

Thailand clearly has a problem with HIV/Aids. It has also had a major revolution in government policy toward the problem. When it first became a problem in the 1980s, government refused to recognize the problem and denied there was one. This was largely an attempt, as government saw it, to protect the lucrative tourist industry, and the sex trade that accompanied tourism. By the 1990s, however, government recognized the problem and initiated a major program of education and services to promote condom use and more responsible sexual behavior. For Khon Kaen, this is reflected in the infection rate among women 15-24 years of age. This stood at 0.49 percent in 1989, rising to 2.22 percent in 1993, and then declining to 1.07 percent in 2002. In 2003 it rose again to 1.29 percent. These data, shown in Figure 7.4, reflect a common problem with Khon Kaen data. The large year to year fluctuations make the data somewhat suspect, and probably indicate a problem with data gathering procedures, which clearly needs attention.

Figure 7.4 HIV infection rate among females 15-27 years

Health Personnel

One of the major inputs that can help explain the progress in reproductive health is the expansion of health services. There has been a substantial growth in health providers, both in government service and private practice. Data available in the 2000 study showed a rise in clinics from 159 in 1981 to 250 in 1997. Personnel in that period rose from 1,926 to 2,994, almost doubling. These are data from the Provincial Health Office, which unfortunately make no distinction between public and private sectors. As the 2000 study showed, the clinics or personnel per population have grown slightly. There have also been annual fluctuations in numbers of both clinics and staff that probably indicate some weakness in data collection.

Finally, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of users of these health services, which poses a major problem of understanding. The 2000 study showed that users per 1000 of the population rose gradually from about 10 in 1981 to near 50 in 1993. Then the numbers rose rapidly to 200 users per 1000 of the population in 1997. As we remarked at that time, this probably reflects not an increase in sickness, but an increase in people obtaining treatment for illnesses that in the past had not received treatment. More research is required to ascertain the cause of this dramatic rise.

Overall, it is clear that Khon Kaen, along with all Thailand, has made major progress in this aspect of the MDGs. Fertility is down, reproductive health is well advanced, and contraceptive services are available apparently to all who wish to use them. The City has achieved the basic MDGs and is now moving on to what can be called second generation problems. HIV/Aids is clearly a problem, which the country now seems to be addressing. Teenage pregnancy is another, though at present there seems to be no clear sense at the national or municipal level that this is a problem that needs addressing. There is also clearly a problem with data. They are often not available, and when available, their fluctuations make them suspect. We shall have more to say about this at the conclusion to the statistical report.

2.2. Poverty

One of the basic MDGs is the reduction of poverty. For much of the less developed world, especially Africa and Southern Asia, this is of prime importance. Like many Asian countries, however, Thailand has experienced substantial economic development over the past half century and with that has come a dramatic reduction in poverty. Per capita gross domestic product has risen in real terms from roughly $465 in 1960 to $3,182 in 2004[2]. There was a drop in wealth in 1997 of about 13 percent, but the country has very much recovered from that and national wealth has risen steadily since 1998. This inevitably means a reduction in the numbers of people living in poverty.

[2] World Bank online data. Values given in 1995 US$

Along with the increased wealth and reduction in poverty, there has been substantial progress in the overall quality of life. We saw specific evidence of this in fertility and reproductive health, and will see more evidence in education.

On the specific measure of poverty, there is an estimate of the proportion of people aged 15 and over who are living under the nationally defined poverty line. The poverty lines are defined almost on an annual basis. This has been done in order to adjust for the rising costs of living. In 1988, the poverty line was defined as a monthly income of less than 473 Baht. This figure was adjusted to 916 Baht per month in 2001. There are no such estimates for Khon Kaen or any of the municipalities in Thailand. We can, however, examine the trend of the national estimates and then make our own estimate of how much Khon Kaen diverges from that level. We present those estimates in Table 7.2 and Figure 7.5. The proportion of people who live under the poverty in Khon Kaen declined considerably from nearly 7 percent in 1988 to less than 4 percent in 2001 under the nationally defined poverty level. There is a higher level of poverty for the Northeast region, which has traditionally been one of the country’s poorest regions. Even for the region as a whole, however, the poverty rate has been cut in half. Since 1988.

Table 7.2 Poverty in Khon Kaen, 1998-2001

Figure 7.5 Khon Kaen and the northeast poverty reduction

2.3. Education

Another of the more prominent MDGs is the achievement of universal primary education, and especially removal of the gender gap. In many countries of the world girls have far less access to primary education than do boys. The MDG sets a target of universal education for both boys and girls by the year 2015.

Thailand has for all intents achieved this goal. Primary education has been available to all boys and girls for the last quarter century, or since about 1980. In fact, as is not uncommon when primary education becomes universal that enrollment rates are greater than 100 percent. This is because as universal education is achieved, enrollment includes children older than 11/12 years and some younger than 6 years.

This enrollment is the numerator with the estimated age 6-11 population as the denominator, giving us percentages greater than 100. In any event this reflects universal primary education.

Khon Kaen has clearly followed the national trend, achieving universal primary education and also moving toward universal secondary education. Moreover for many years there has been no real gender gap. Education is easily as available to girls as it is to boys. But that is not the end of the problem. This can be seen when we examine enrollment data for Khon Kaen for the past two decades and more. They are shown in Table 7.3 and Figure 7.6.

Table 7.3 Khon Kaen school enrollments

It is immediately apparent that these data are deficient. The dramatic year to year changes, for example from 37,800 to 19,800 to 34,400 in 1984-5-6 is very suspicious. The 41,000 peak for primary enrollment in 1998 is also a radical rise. It is not reasonable to think that the actual numbers of students fluctuated that much from year to year. The dramatic declines occur in 1985 and 1988 for both primary and secondary enrollment. Moreover, primary enrollment dropped dramatically after 1988 and secondary enrollment after 1997.

In the 2000 study we recognized that the enrollment figures seemed much greater than they should be for a city the size of Khon Kaen. Thus we modeled the expected primary and secondary age population for the years 1982-1997 and found indeed that enrollment figures were from two to five times that expected for a city of this size. These data can be seen in Figure 6. The large inflation is readily understandable. In Thailand it is customary for rural people to send their children to urban areas for education. The children live with relatives or people who migrated from that same village, and attend urban schools for the greater advantages they provide. That explains the inflation. It does not explain the large fluctuations or the discrepancies in gender and total figures.

Figure 7.6 Actual enrollment and modeled school aged population for primary and secondary school

As with population and reproductive health, Khon Kaen has achieved the MDGs for universal primary education for both boys and girls. Government is to be lauded for this work. But the city administration continues to have a problem. It really does not have adequate data to assess either its accomplishments or its remaining problems in education.

2.4. The Position of Women

Women in Thailand, and in all Southeast Asia for that matter, have traditionally been free to move about, engage in market and in all manner of economic activities and they have had a high degree of autonomy. That is especially true in Thailand. It can be seen in education. It is more than evident in the market place, where women often dominate. It is also true in the professions, such as medicine, where women are roughly on a par with men. In politics and administration, however, women lag behind. Elected government positions and high administrative positions remain dominated by men. In Khon Kaen this is clearly reflected in the elected City Council. There were 22 members on the Council from 1970 to 1994, when the number was increased to 24. In 1970-71, there was one woman on the Council; two in 1972-73. From 1974 to 1984 there were no women on the Council. Over the next decade, 1990-2002, there were two women on the Council and 4 in 2003.

The picture in city administration is somewhat different. Of the 7 divisions, 5 are headed by women. Among the top rank of city administrators, the position of city clerk is headed by a man, who has one male assistant (as Deputy City Clerk) and one female assistant.

Moreover, there is a distinct difference in men and women in the degree of geographic mobility, or tenure in office. Women administrators tend to have been in the city government for some years. Many men have more often only recently come to the city government from other cities in the country. In effect there is a national civil service for city administrators. Men often make the move from one city to another, advancing their positions as they move. Women tend to stay in the same city, where family obligations play a larger role in their long tenure. One unique system of Thailand’s public sector is that there is no salary discrimination on the basis of gender. Females receive the same pay as males for the same type of work and responsibility.

2.5. Other Quality of Life Measures

Water

In the 2000 study we found that Khon Kaen has sufficient water supply to meet its needs, even with a projected growth of some tens of thousands. In this paper we will deal more specifically with quality of water. Over the years, there are some indications that the quality of water has improved considerably in some areas and deteriorated in others. In this regard, the BOD measure has declined substantially from roughly 30 in 1980 to approximately 14 for the past few years. The BOD count shows sign of improvement in the quality of water at selected water ways that are directly connected to the sewer. Sample tests were not carried out at the places where there is no reason to believe that the water was seriously polluted. Therefore, water in lakes and ponds was not tested for the quality of water. In 2002, the city of Khon Kaen allocated and invested a large sum of its budgets into a new water treatment project. The total investment was 533 million Baht. Upon the completion, this project has been able to cover 69 percent of the total area of the city. The water treatment dump was an oxygen treated lagoon with the absorbing capacity of 78,000 cubic meters per day. Currently, the system treats about 32,000 cubic meter of water per day. After a complete treatment, the BOD value of the discharged water is 14.0, which pass the specified standard.

It should be noted here that the data on BOD count show again some sign of weakness in the data as we have seen in other areas. For 1985 and for 1991-94, the BOD measures were recorded as 22.4 and 12.94 respectively.

Fecal count, on the other hand has increased from 30 in 1999, the first date for which the data become available, to about 67 in 2004. The increase in fecal count indicates a decline in the quality of water. Therefore, there is reason for concern on the quality of raw water in natural places where it will be treated for public use in the city of Khon Kaen.

Air Quality

In the 2000 study we found a clear climatic impact on air quality. At that time data were available only for the 14 months August 1996 through September 1997. There we saw a dramatic decline in Nitrogen Oxides (NOX), suspended particulate matter (SPM) and Ozone during the heavy rains of the summer monsoon months. In the dry winter months all these levels rose to twice or more the wet season levels. At this time, we now have air quality data for the years 2000, through 2003. This shows a near stability of SO2 at about 2 ppb. NO2 has fluctuated around 21 ppb in this period; Ozone has fluctuated around 16-17 ppb. Carbon monoxide has declined from about 1.2 to 0.9 pm, and SPM has shown the steadiest decline from 64 to 42 micrograms per liter over the four years. That SPM, a major cause of respiratory disease, has declined is a good sign of progress. This is especially so since the number of registered vehicles has nearly doubled in this time, from 430,527 in 1998 to 736,429 in 2003. It is not clear at this time what accounts for the progress in SPM. There has been a slight increase in paved roads and in the bypass ring roads that allows big trucks and motor vehicles to pass through Khon Kaen Province without having to go into the city, which could account for some progress. It is also possible that newer vehicles are more fuel efficient and emit fewer pollutants.

Traffic Health

The rapid growth of motor vehicles is a common theme in most developing countries, especially those that are experiencing substantial economic growth, as is Thailand. The 2000 study documents a rapid rise in car and motorcycles in Khon Kaen. This is clearly evident to any visitor or observer. Current data also show that despite the growth in vehicles, traffic safety has increased. Table 7.4 shows some of these data

Table 7.4 Vehicle growth and traffic health

These data show clearly a substantial increase in traffic health. Accidents, injuries and deaths per 1000 vehicles have declined steadily and dramatically at the same time that vehicle numbers have almost doubled. Part of this derives from the national government’s road building policies. Throughout the country, bypass roads are constructed around urban areas, keeping them clear of the large trucks that ply the roads everywhere.

Clearly something has been done at the city level in Khon Kaen to make vehicles and driving safer and more efficient. In general, the city relies on “The 3 Es Intervention,” which is an abbreviation of Education, Engineering, and Enforcement. The city has done a lot about re-engineering of the city traffic system by installing traffic lights at more road intersections in the city and by introducing one way streets into the city. The city has also campaigned and educated the public about safe and defensive drive, and also creates better awareness of the danger and the cost of drunk and reckless driving and speeding on both drivers of car and riders of motor cycle. Strict law enforcement has also been observed. The city has collaborated with the Police Station, which is under the control of central government, in enforcing the law on requiring drivers to buckle seat belts, to observe the speed limit and to wear safety helmets for motorcycle riders. In addition, a more severe punishment is imposed on drunk driving. All of these have synergized to reduce traffic accidents and injuries in the city of Khon Kaen.

Garbage

All cities generate masses of solid wastes and must deal with these. If left uncollected and untreated, solid wastes become breeding grounds for insects and disease. Khon Kaen has been not exception to the growth of solid wastes, but for the most part, it has kept collection and treatment procedures up to the demand. Data are available only for 1998-2004. These show a rise in volume of garbage from 47,093 tons in 1998 to 68,942 tons in 2003, then a decline to 58,162 tons in 2004. The amount of garbage treated has kept up with this volume, except in agreement has increased from 19.2 million to 21.2 baht, and the number of staff has grown from 155  to 200.

The Garbage Bank

The explanation for the decline in garbage lies in the innovative project of the CIty, the Garbage Bank Program. In 2002, the municipality started a campain on garbage management through pepole participation to reuce solid waste and begin a recycling program. This means that starting in 2002 pepole in the city participated in sifting and sorting the gabage for reusable items as well as in generating more organic fertilizers out of the organic waste. This in effect reduced the amount of garbage that the municipality had to collect considerably and that explained the decline in the ammount of garbage collected. In addition, the program on redemption of hazardous waste for cash (Garbage Bank) started in the same year and also contributed significantly to a decline in the amount of garbage collected. What is equally or more important is the increasing efficiency in garbage treatment, starting from collecting, hauling away from the data that the cost of treatment of garbage per ton declined considerably.

Figure 7.7 Khon Kaen garbage

3. SUMMARY

Overall these statistical data show two things very clearly. First, Khon Kean has made great progress in meeting and surpassing the MDGs. It is very much the policies and programs of the national and local governments that have been responsible for this progress. Government policies are in large part responsible for the rapid economic development of the country over the past half century. The resulting increased wealth has made possible better social services at the marco level, and greater resources at the individual level to be used for nutrition, health and education. Equally important, however, are the Government initiatives and leadership, especially in health and education that have raised the overall quality of life for Thai citizens.

The statistical treatmen also shows, however, many problems in data collection and recording. In the 2000 study we noted this deficiency and suggested one possible reason. The city government has little direct control over such things as health, education, or even water and utilities. Thus it has no real incentive to monitor data collection and be sure that the data are accurate and adequate for planning. The new Thai constitution mandates greater decentralization of authority and responsibility to the cities and provinces. This will clearly increase the demand at the local level for more and better data. Hopefully this study will have indicated where some work must be done to improve the data Khon Kaen managers need to provide for more effective future planning.