Miscellaneous Knowledge Notes

668 items available

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/10986/9388

Items in this collection

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9

Does Fiscal Policy Have a Role in Improving Child Well-Being in Ethiopia?
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-04-01) Ambel, Alemayehu A.; Belete, Getachew Yirga; Fiala, Oliver
Taxes, government spending, and public transfers affect the well-being of children and adults, albeit in different ways. There is, however, a dearth of empirical evidence on the impact of these policies on the well-being of children in low-income countries. This policy brief summarizes a recent study by Ambel, Belete, and Fiala (2024), which investigates the effects of fiscal actions on poverty and inequality among children in Ethiopia. The study applies the Commitment to Equity for Children (CEQ4C) methodology on survey data integrated with administrative data. It finds that the fiscal system in Ethiopia is progressive, poverty-reducing, and equalizing for children. However, there are observed differences in the effects of some of the fiscal policy components, as many of these effects are stronger for girls and children in rural areas. The study also highlights the essential role of public services in improving children’s well-being.
Assessment of Trends in General Education Public Expenditure in Zambia
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-07-01) World Bank
Over the past decade, Zambia’s gross domestic product (GDP) has been decreasing as a result of a devastating combination of external and domestic shocks. The country’s macroeconomic environment was weakened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the worsening fiscal outlook, the need for better investments in human capital has never been greater. Building human capital is made more challenging because quality services need to cover a large proportion of the population. The main objective of this policy brief is to assess the funding of pre-primary to tertiary education and how effectively resources are utilized. The 2016 to 2021 period is used for review.
Key Ingredients to Women’s Legal Rights in Kenya
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-03-24) Githae, Catherine Nyaguthii; Galiano, Emilia; Nyagah, Fredrick J.K.; Recavarren, Isabel Santagostino
Legislative reforms to increase gender equality before the law are often long and complex processes. This brief focuses on a series of reforms in Kenya, specifically, the adoption of the Sexual Offenses Act of 2006, the Employment Act of 2007, and the Protection Against Domestic Violence Act of 2015. Strong evidence, broad coalitions, and incorporating the highest standards based on international best practice in early legal drafts are singled out as the key elements that led to the successful adoption of these landmark laws promoting women’s rights in Kenya. The lessons in this brief can provide important insights for policy makers, advocacy groups and international organizations involved in the pursuit of legal gender equality in Kenya and other countries.
Social Assistance Programs and Household Welfare in Eswatini: Study Brief
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-12-17) World Bank
This study brief on “Social Assistance Programs and Household Welfare in Eswatini” examines the performance of Eswatini’s main social assistance programs. These programs employ varying combinations of categorical and self-targeting to reach the poor and vulnerable.
Somalia: COVID-19 High Phone Survey Wave 2 Brief
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-11) Kotikula, Andy; Pournik, Milad; Yoshimura, Kazusa
In January 2021, the second wave of the Somalia high frequency phone survey has been administered, calling 2,811 households to see the impact of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on people’s behavior and livelihood. The first wave has been conducted in June 2020, and compared to that, the adoption of preventive measures such as washing hands and wearing mask was less widespread in the second wave, while over 90 percent of people expressed interest in getting tested and vaccinated. The overall employment rate seems to have improved from the first wave, but still the majority of households (79 percent) reported the further income reduction. Food insecurity has clearly worsened compared to the first wave while government and non-government assistance appears to have reduced greatly since 2020, which strongly suggests the need of further support to the Somalis, especially the most vulnerable groups including internally displaced populations (IDPs) and nomadic households.
COVID-19 Impact Monitoring: Malawi, Round 11
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-07) World Bank
The COVID-19 pandemic has socio-economic impacts on Malawians and there is need for timely data to monitor these impacts and support response efforts to the pandemic. In May 2020, the National Statistical Office (NSO), with support from the World Bank, launched the High Frequency Phone Survey on COVID-19; a monthly survey of a nationally representative sample of households previously interviewed as part of the Malawi Integrated Household Panel Survey to monitor the economic impact of the pandemic and other shocks. This brief presents the findings from the tenth and eleventh rounds of the Malawi High-Frequency Phone Sur-vey on COVID-19 (HFPS COVID-19) conducted between the 29th of April and the 9th of June 2021.
One Year in the Pandemic: Results from the High-Frequency Phone Surveys for Refugees in Uganda
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06-28) Atamanov, Aziz; Reese, Benjamin Christopher; Rios Rivera, Laura Abril; Waita, Peter
The URHFPS tracks the socioeconomic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on refugees. The World Bank (WB) in collaboration with the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) launched and conducted the URHFPS. The URHFPS tracked the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic between October 2020 and March 2021. This brief discusses key selected results while providing policy options. Where possible and appropriate, findings are compared to Ugandans by using the national High-Frequency Phone Survey (UHFPS) conducted by UBOS with the support from the World Bank since June 2020.
Socioeconomic Impacts of COVID-19 in Kenya
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06) Pape, Utz Johann; Delius, Antonia; Khandelwal, Ritika; Gupta, Rhea
The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a strong impact on the livelihoods of Kenyan households, even though employment and income levels are recovering. The second lockdown resulted in another surge in food insecurity. While access to education worsened again due to renewed school closures, health services remained widely accessible to the population. Kenyans are well informed about the preventive measures to avoid COVID-19 infections, and compliance with hygiene measures against the virus increased again during the second lockdown. The majority of Kenyans will be willing to take a COVID-19 vaccine, but many are concerned about potential side effects. One-half of the Kenyan population is anxious due to the fear of contracting COVID-19 and potential employment losses. This brief summarizes the key results of the Kenya COVID-19 rapid response phone survey (RRPS) tracking the socioeconomic impacts of the crisis from May 2020 to June 2021.
The Labor Market Impacts of COVID-19 in Four African Countries (April to October 2020): Evidence from LSMS-Supported High‑Frequency Phone Surveys on COVID-19
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-10) Contreras-Gonzalez, Ivette; Siwatu, Gbemisola Oseni; Palacios-Lopez, Amparo; Pieters, Janneke; Weber, Michael
As part of a global effort led by the World Bank to track the socio-economic impacts of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the living standards measurement study (LSMS) team supports high-frequency phone surveys in Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, and Uganda (among other countries). This brief focuses on the early impacts of COVID-19 on the labor market and their evolution from April to October 2020 using phone surveys in four African countries.