Well-functioning institutions are critical to reducing poverty and boosting growth. However, fragile and conflict-affected states generally lack the political and institutional structures needed to address pockets of poverty and promote development.
... Voir la suite One relevant example where the World Bank met this challenge was in the innovation of procurement procedures in a recent Social Safety Net (SSN) program in Iraq. Rather than allowing inefficient bidding procedures to block successful implementation, the team at hand adjusted their approach, and adopted simplified, non-traditional methods: they tested the ability of the local market to supply equipment through numerous smaller-value contracts, and removed constraints that discouraged the participation of local Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). After 30 years of conflict and embargo, the Iraqi government sought to strengthen social protection for its citizens by transforming what were traditionally subsidies into a targeted cash-based SSN program. The experience of working in a conflict-affected country led to smaller procurement packages and simplified procedures. An unorthodox and riskier approach at the outset ended up not only saving costs but also strengthening the local private sector and generating jobs in the country.
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The focus of development actors working in the area of disaster management has shifted substantially from disaster recovery to disaster risk reduction over the past decade, coinciding with the decade of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005-2015.
... Voir la suite Amidst this strategic shift, there is now the need to work towards ensuring that investments made to reduce disaster risks are cost-effective and that the benefits reach all members of the population including the poor and vulnerable, who are often 'affected disproportionately' (Global Assessment Report 2009, The Sendai Report 2012). The losses from natural disasters to mankind are undoubtedly massive-on average, globally every year over 100,000 people were killed and some 246 million people affected by natural disasters during the period 2002-2011 and the estimated average economic loss was US$131 billion per year. The purpose of this note is to briefly survey existing evidence in developing countries with regard to the benefits and costs of various disaster risk reduction interventions so as to provide some general lessons for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) practitioners on the strengths and limitations of such existing work. In doing so, this note examines evidence on the economics of DRR in developing countries. The note begins by providing a comparative guideline for analysis. This is followed by a summary diagnostic of seventeen case studies along five key dimensions comprising the guideline as follows: 1) metric and methodology, 2) sources of uncertainty, 3) measuring fatalities and injuries, 4) results obtained, and 5) disaggregated impacts. In the concluding section that follows, the note discusses the overall trends in the field of performing cost and benefits analysis of DRR measures and offers some recommendations for ways forward.
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The Republic of Yemen, situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, is one of the poorest countries in the world. In addition to significant development challenges, Yemen is particularly vulnerable to climate change.
... Voir la suite Rainfall is erratic and variable, a situation made worse by high evapotranspiration rates. Sustainable social and economic development in Yemen depends on knowledge of climate variability and change, and reliable and actionable meteorological and hydrological forecasts and warnings. Upgrading weather, climate and water information will reduce vulnerabilities to natural hazards and increase food and water security. Yemen is particularly reliant on its natural resources outside the extractive industries. Agriculture plays a leading role in Yemen's economy and employs more than half of the labor force. Through the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR), Yemen aims to better manage water resources, increasing agricultural productivity and reducing the risk of climate-sensitive diseases. This will be done by improving the monitoring and assessment of climate variability and change and providing targeted and reliable information for decision making.
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Risk-sensitive land use planning is vital for sustainable economic development and effective Disaster Risk Management (DRM). Urban development programs should adopt risk-sensitive land use planning to encourage resilient development guiding the growth of people, assets and services within and away from hazardous zones.
... Voir la suite Many East Asia and the Pacific (EAP) countries have national land use policy and local plans which incorporate risk assessments; however, they typically lack the means for their implementation and incorporation into development planning. This note introduces the potential of Land Readjustment (LR) and Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) for DRM as seen in their application in Brazil, India, Japan, and the US. The note recommends that if municipalities build capacity for strategic land management, LR and TDR can be used effectively to finance and implement risk-sensitive land use plans. LR offers to accommodate and plan for risks with minimal displacement while TDR promises to equitably relocate development away from hazardous sites through the real estate market.
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South-South knowledge exchanges are increasingly recognized as one of the most effective learning and development tools. While it is important to facilitate such exchange of first-hand experiences and lessons across developing countries, what is even more important is what is actually done with the outcomes of the learning and knowledge sharing that take place across boundaries.
... Voir la suite So in this Quick Note authors would like to take it a step further and share the Iraq country experience, which has recently benefitted from South-South knowledge exchange facilitated by the World Bank. In this case, the World Bank not only acted as a facilitator and convener, but also as a solution provider. The cash-based social safety net program administered by the Ministry of labor and social affairs has expanded to reach nearly one million families (based on categorical targeting), with a budget of about US$800 million. Overall, Iraq spends close to 10 percent of its gross domestic product on social safety net programs, of which 7.7 percent is spent on food and fuel subsidies.
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The integration of consultation mechanisms throughout the policymaking process has proved to be a valuable instrument to help strengthen government-citizen interaction and improve the quality of government policies on key development areas by leading to better designed development projects, more effective service delivery, and improvements in the targeting of benefits.
... Voir la suite By making preliminary policy analysis available for public scrutiny, stakeholders are provided with a means to inform the development of a policy or its implementation. Consultation also helps regulators to balance opposing interests and to identify unintended effects while ensuring transparency to minimize administrative burdens and reduce corruption and rent-seeking. When successful, public participation can have a transformative impact by providing citizens with a platform for active engagement in the development process, and allows citizens to hold governments to account and to better influence decisions that affect their lives. While the benefits of public consultation are widely recognized, the MENA region still lags in the domain of public engagement, especially in regards to providing citizens with mechanisms to engage effectively in the design, implementation, and evaluation of public policy.
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The World Bank is focused on developing and supporting programs that help children reach their potential and live lives free of poverty. To help build a body of evidence of what works, the World Bank financed an evaluation of a program in Jamaica that targeted mothers of babies stunted due to malnutrition.
... Voir la suite The mothers received either support or guidance on how to encourage their babies' development through play and language, or nutritional supplements, or a combination of the two. The children whose mothers had received the extra guidance were doing as well financially as the less disadvantaged (and non-stunted) children. This study is a rare look at the effects of early childhood intervention over the decades, giving policymakers and development experts tangible proof of the potential effects of early childhood development programs. A rare long-term study of the effects of an early childhood development program shows that children's lives can be improved by ensuring that they have the right stimulation and emotional support as babies and toddlers.
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Understanding the demands and priorities of poor persons is important to effectively target services in the justice sector. To help enhance data, in 2012 the Department of Statistics implemented a survey of 10,000 households focusing on the justice sector the first of its kind in Jordan.
... Voir la suite The survey was administered throughout the country, covering both rural and urban areas. Its primary objective was to identify the most common types of legal disputes and the characteristics of the households and individuals involved. The survey demonstrates that the most frequent types of cases reported vary by the expenditure levels of respondents. The key areas for reform to impact poverty include: improving the quality of services in personal status cases, especially access to alimony, child support and inheritance; simplifying the process of deferring court fees for poor persons; and strengthening special services developed to address personal status issues, including the newly-established alimony fund.
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Confidence in combining inflation-targeting-cum-flexible-exchange-rate regimes with isolated micro prudential regulation as a means to guarantee both macroeconomic and financial stability has been shattered by the scale and synchronization of the asset price booms and busts that preceded the global financial crisis.
... Voir la suite It has now become clear that if monetary policy makers and prudential regulators are to succeed in achieving stability, there can be no complacency regarding asset price cycles. This note explores some of the ways in which monetary policy can address asset price booms and busts through its integration with macro prudential regulation.
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In the mid-2000s, poverty measurement in Colombia was at a standstill. A dated poverty measurement methodology was clashing with improvements in the national household survey system.
... Voir la suite As a result, official poverty rates showed volatile trends, and a weak communication strategy produced an unconvincing storyline, which further resulted in the rapid deterioration of indicator credibility. This happened during a period of high and sustained growth that also included a number of poverty reduction interventions, such as the flagship program familias en accion and the unidos strategy. The public debate on poverty lost focus and moved from substantial policy discussions to technical measurement methods.
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Three decades of rapid growth and structural change have transformed China into an upper-middle-income country and global economic powerhouse.
... Voir la suite China's transformations over this period wielded increasing influence over the development path of other countries, either directly through bilateral trade and financial flows or indirectly through growth spillovers and terms of trade effects. Looking ahead, as China embarks on a new phase in its development journey, a phase characterized by slower but higher-quality growth, the economic landscape facing the developing world is expected to be redefined yet again. As China changes, so will its interactions with the outside world. China is expected to remain both a market and a competitor, but its changes are likely to lead to new opportunities for many and new challenges for some. Key questions in this respect are: (i) how will the level and composition of China's import demand evolve as its economy slows and rebalances; (ii) to what extent will the presumed out-migration of labor-intensive manufacturing materialize and create new opportunities elsewhere; and (iii) how quickly will China move up the value chain and redefine its competitive advantage in the global marketplace? How these uncertain long-term developments affect individual countries will depend on differences in total supply chain costs, resource availability, and innovation capability. As in the past, China's transformations are expected to put formidable pressure on countries to adapt and reform, requiring both political will and entrepreneurial capacity, in a collective race where success will be measured against a rapidly moving frontier.
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The Palestinian Authority (PA)- administered Cash Transfer Program (CTP) is considered one of the most advanced cash assistance programs in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
... Voir la suite Using its sophisticated management information system (MIS), which includes a poverty-targeting database, it provides timely quarterly payments to beneficiary households using a uniform payment modality. The CTP was established, with support from the PA, after a merger between the World Bank-funded Social Safety Net Reform Project (SSNRP) and the European Union (EU)-funded Special Hardship Case (SHC) program in 2010. Since the CTP provided its first payment to households in the Palestinian Territories (PT) that year, the number of beneficiary households has increased by almost 59 percentage reaching almost 100,000 households.
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The process of political change and transition across much of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) continued into 2013, with a great degree of heterogeneity across countries.
... Voir la suite Violence in Syria has escalated, with spillover effects to Lebanon and Jordan. Security in Yemen is fragile but a national dialogue has started which includes the drafting of a new constitution in advance of national elections. In MENA's transitioning countries drafting of new constitutions remains a critical pending issue. Citizens have not been silent. Their voices continue to be heard across the region calling for greater public participation and open government
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Yemen is at a crossroads. Two years after popular unrest led to the ousting of the former president, there is now a coalition government, and the beginnings of a national political transition.
... Voir la suite March 2013 saw the launch of the National Dialogue Conference (NDC) that has brought together political and civil society actors from across the spectrum to formulate a constitution and bring closure not only to the unrest that began in 2011, but to decades of unresolved grievances and conflicts within Yemen. Expectations are high and much is riding on the outcome of the NDC, not least of which is the future direction of the Yemeni economy. As in most developing countries, the Yemeni private sector consists predominantly of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) - over 97 presentage of firms (about 290,000 in number) have less than 25 employees with total estimated employment of over 600,000 workers, including approximately 30,000 women. The inclusion of these MSMEs in Yemen's economic recovery is critical for social stability as they represent a significant portion of the jobs outside the public sector and a significant source of income for segments of the Yemeni population. Even more crucially, they also represent an important source of potential future job growth.
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The Government of Kuwait (GOK) is now moving decisively to reform its insolvency and creditor/debtor regime (ICR). Stakeholders recognize that Kuwait's ICR system had fallen behind that required for a modern economy.
... Voir la suite The GOK's effort to establish a modern insolvency and creditor rights system is driven by several considerations: first, consistent with its traditional strengths, Kuwait is seeking to transform itself into a regional financial and trading center, as expressed in the Amiri vision 2030 and the GOK's most-recent five-year development plan. Second, many of the difficulties afflicting the country's investment company sector, which started surfacing in 2008, still await fundamental resolution. Third, development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is essential to help the GOK meet its goals of diversifying the sources of income and encouraging young people to work in the private sector, in order to reduce the burden of the public sector. The GOK's reform agenda aspires to world-class standards, balancing international norms with solutions rooted in Kuwait's unique local customs. The consensus among stakeholders is that an effective insolvency regime would benefit the Kuwait economy.
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Fiche 76883 APR 01, 2013
Cojocaru, Iulia; Johnson, Gordon W.; Mako, William; Mokal, Riz
While most economists accept that, in the long run, open economies fare better in aggregate than closed ones, many fears that trade could harm the poor.
... Voir la suite African countries, for example, have realized significant improvements in trade liberalization in recent decades, yet Africa remains the poorest continent in the world. It seems that the large gains expected from opening up to international economic forces have been limited in Africa, especially for poor people. Drawing on the findings of a recently published working paper (Le Goff and Singh 2013), this note argues that the benefits of trade are not automatic, but rather depend on accompanying policies aimed at developing the financial sector, promoting primary education, and improving governance. This accompanying policy agenda allows people to take advantage of the opportunities offered by freer trade, by reallocating resources away from less productive activities to more promising ones. Trade liberalization therefore should not be implemented on its own, but with the necessary complementing policies.
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The Egyptian revolution resulted in key challenges but also opportunities. It has highlighted the need for more jobs, a level playing field, good governance (transparency and accountability), as well as a fair and competitive environment to accelerate inclusive growth.
... Voir la suite It is essential to address the challenges the country faces and build on the opportunities at this historical time. Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are the main source of private sector jobs in Egypt and in the MENA region as a whole. A recent World Bank analysis of 99 countries shows that firms with less than a hundred employees account for the lion's share of employment creation.
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Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) represent an important pillar of the Moroccan economy. Estimates indicate they account for more than 90 percent of all enterprises and contribute to 21.6 percent of total employment.
... Voir la suite These numbers only reflect the statistics of the formal economy: Their contribution to the real economy is significantly higher if the economic activity of the informal sector were to be included. Most MSMEs are in the services sector, followed by manufacturing and trade. The Moroccan government has acknowledged the importance of MSMEs for the national economy and has developed a number of initiatives aimed at improving the enabling environment for these firms. A new national strategy aimed at promoting the development of small enterprises was elaborated in 2011, which includes a simplified taxation system, adapted social charges, extended social security coverage, and specific banking products.
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The World Bank is now supporting and facilitating the establishment of the first community of practice in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in the area of employment and social safety nets.
... Voir la suite This community will provide a space where practitioners from MENA to share their operational experience, knowledge, and best practices on how best to improve delivery of social policy. One channel to improve the design and implementation of social programs is to foster south-south knowledge exchanges, which have proven to successfully contribute to reform of social programs and systems in other developing regions. These knowledge exchanges can take various formats; such as study tours, audio-conferences, workshops, and e-platforms. The first meeting was an attempt to gather an initial pool of practitioners in the region to define the topics to be discussed by community and to define the tools that will be employed to help and facilitate knowledge exchanges. A virtual network using the World Bank's collaboration for development platform helped practitioners stay in contact with each other, initiate discussions, ask questions, and share information on regional best practices.
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Fiche 75759 MAR 01, 2013
Angel-Urdinalo, Diego F.; Caillava, Ines Rodriguez; Semlali, Amina
Employment generation is a critical challenge facing policymakers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, particularly since the Arab uprisings as citizens challenge governments to provide greater economic and social opportunities.
... Voir la suite Unemployment levels in MENA are above those of any other region, while the labor force participation rate remains stubbornly low. Three out of four working-age women do not participate in the labor force, constituting 80-90 percent of MENA's inactive workers. Unemployment is further complicated by the demographic bulge the region is facing. The lack of good employment opportunities in the region is reflected in high levels of informality: in no MENA country does the formal private sector employ more than 20 percent of workers. In recent years, policymakers have prioritized developing Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSMEs) to address the employment challenge in MENA. A small proportion of high performing MSMEs have the potential to grow into internationally competitive companies, generating significant economic benefits through raised productivity, employment, and economic stability. Addressing the employment challenge in MENA requires a coordinated set of policy interventions that combine access to finance for MSMEs with direct business development services, early stage investment for new firms, and broader reforms to the business regulatory and legal environment.
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