Miscellaneous Knowledge Notes

683 items available

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

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Indonesia Coral Bond - An Innovative Ocean Financing Instrument
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-06-05) World Bank
Thanks to funding support from the PROBLUE and Indonesia Oceans, Marine Debris and Coastal Resources Multi-Donor Trust Funds, the World Bank, the Government of Indonesia, the Global Environment Facility, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and BNP Paribas are joining forces to develop the world’s first impact bond for coral reef conservation. The proposed Indonesia Coral Bond is designed to deliver independently verified conservation and biodiversity outcomes in some of the most biodiverse coral reef ecosystems on the planet. The proposed bond leverages an existing US$210 million World Bank operation (the Oceans for Prosperity Project) supporting the Government of Indonesia to increase management effectiveness in marine protected areas
Gender and Informal Work in Thailand
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-09-26) World Bank
Thailand has made good progress in closing gender gaps in various dimensions, especially human capital development. However, the progress, though obvious, has not done much to get rid of the main deterrents discouraging Thai women from participating more actively in the labor market. Thailand’s labor force participation rate (LFPR) is 94 percent for men and 80.5 percent for women; both have been relatively stable since 2017. More than half of jobs in Thailand are considered informal, but though “informal worker” is in general use throughout the economy, what it refers to has no precise definition. The gender and informality study by the World Bank Bangkok team led to the recommendations covered in this report.
Public Services & COVID-19 – Reflections from the Pacific: Adaptable System Settings
(Washington, DC, 2022-12) World Bank
The purpose of this note is to identify good practice in public sector management drawn from Pacific Island public service experiences of navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. These experiences were brought together through a World Bank engagement with Pacific Island countries in 2021 and 2022. The engagement identified five core aspects of Pacific Island public service management in response to COVID-19: trust, preparation, adaptable system settings, adaptable operating models, and sustainable wage bills. This first note in the series of five focuses on the importance of trust. The primary audience is public service leaders in Pacific Islands. The note will also be of interest to anyone working on designing and leading public sector management systems through rapid change, uncertainty and crises.
Public Services and COVID-19 - Reflections from the Pacific: Sustainable Wage Bills
(Washington, DC, 2022-12) World Bank
The purpose of this note is to identify good practice in public sector management drawn from Pacific Island public service experiences of navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. These experiences were brought together through a World Bank engagement with Pacific Island countries in 2021 and 2022. The engagement identified five core aspects of Pacific Island public service management in response to COVID-19: trust, preparation, adaptable system settings, adaptable operating models, and sustainable wage bills. This first note in the series of five focuses on the importance of trust. The primary audience is public service leaders in Pacific Islands. The note will also be of interest to anyone working on designing and leading public sector management systems through rapid change, uncertainty and crises.
Public Services and COVID-19 - Reflections from the Pacific: Preparation
(Washington, DC, 2022-12) World Bank
The purpose of this note is to identify good practice in public sector management drawn from Pacific Island public service experiences of navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. These experiences were brought together through a World Bank engagement with Pacific Island countries in 2021 and 2022. The engagement identified five core aspects of Pacific Island public service management in response to COVID-19: trust, preparation, adaptable system settings, adaptable operating models, and sustainable wage bills. This first note in the series of five focuses on the importance of trust. The primary audience is public service leaders in Pacific Islands. The note will also be of interest to anyone working on designing and leading public sector management systems through rapid change, uncertainty and crises.
Public Services and COVID-19 - Reflections from the Pacific: Adaptable Operating Models
(World Bank, 2022-12) World Bank
The purpose of this note is to identify good practice in public sector management drawn from Pacific Island public service experiences of navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. These experiences were brought together through a World Bank engagement with Pacific Island countries in 2021 and 2022. The engagement identified five core aspects of Pacific Island public service management in response to COVID-19: trust, preparation, adaptable system settings, adaptable operating models, and sustainable wage bills. This first note in the series of five focuses on the importance of trust. The primary audience is public service leaders in Pacific Islands. The note will also be of interest to anyone working on designing and leading public sector management systems through rapid change, uncertainty and crises.
Connecting the Dots: Toward a Social Protection Interoperability Framework in Fiji
(Washington, DC, 2022-11) World Bank
Both the public and private sectors rely on intensive data use in the 21st century. While data is everywhere, accessing that data is difficult. Accessing that data then requires permission, the ability to access and receive the data, and finally, the ability to use that data to produce useful information for citizen servicing. Interoperability aims to resolve these challenges by ensuring coordination across different systems. Interoperability in e-Governance is defined as the ability of different systems from various stakeholders to work together, by communicating, interpreting and exchanging the information in a meaningful way. The Republic of Fiji is home to one of the most sophisticated economies in the Pacific Islands. The recent economic shocks triggered by Coronavirus (COVID-19) as well as several rounds of significant tropical weather events between 2020 and 2022 have highlighted critical systematic challenges in Fiji’s Social Protection (SP) system. The Government of Fiji (GoF) has initiated the social assistance policy reform agenda to address these challenges. In parallel, Technical Assistance (TA) was provided to the Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation (MWCPA) and the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) by the World Bank, which includes an IT assessment with recommendations for enhancing the Social Protection IT infrastructure in the DSW and the SP sector in the country and a roadmap for the gradual introduction of an Integrated Social Protection Digital Platform (ISPDP) in Fiji. Interoperability is a key enabler of a more adaptive and gender-inclusive social protection system in Fiji.
Economic and Social Impacts of the Recent Crises in Tonga: Insights from the April-May 2022 Round of High Frequency Phone Surveys
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-10-21) World Bank
This report includes: the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai (HT-HH) volcanic eruption (January 15, 2022) and a subsequent tsunami, COVID-19 outbreak and the associated lockdown (starting on February 2); to assess and monitor the economic and social impacts of the crises, the World Bank launched household-level HFPS with a plan to collect 6 rounds of surveys until mid-2024; surveys interview the same households across rounds to monitor various socio-economic outcomes and inform policy and government programs; and similar HFPS have been implemented in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands with Vanuatu and Fiji in the pipeline, under the World Bank Pacific Observatory initiative
Opportunities to maximize the effectiveness of food and tobacco tax to help address Samoa NCD crisis
(Washington, DC, 2022) World Bank
Samoa is one of the first countries in the Pacific to introduce taxation measures to address Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs). The predicted probability of dying from NCDs between the ages of 30 and 70 years is more than double in Samoa compared to high-income nations in the Pacific region. Over several years, the Government of Samoa has imposed excise taxes on several products including cigarettes, alcohol, and sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs). There are plans to expand excise taxes to unhealthy products in 2023. This includes raising excise taxes on tobacco and SSBs and introducing import duty and/or excise taxes on imported high fat cuts of lamb, syrups, confectionery, biscuits, ice cream, and french fries. Simultaneously, there are plans to reduce and/or waive import duty on selected vegetables, fresh chicken, and bottled water. Therefore, in 2020, a nationally representative survey was conducted to generate baseline data to inform future tax measures.
Why Central Bank Independence Matters
(World Bank, Malaysia, 2021-11-30) Bandaogo, Mahama Samir
Deep economic crises - the global financial crisis and the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic - have put some strains on and rekindled an older debate about the costs and benefits of central bank Independence. Central banks have been accorded more independence since the 1970s, which has helped bring down and keep inflation low and reduced the risk of fiscal crises. However, as their interventions in the economy with unconventional policies expand further beyond their original mandate, especially those pertaining to financial stability, critics have called for more oversight of their activities. That is because some of the central banks’ newfound responsibilities such as financial stability does not have a precise and unambiguous target or measure, making accountability difficult. The evidence in support of central bank independence remains strong, as highlighted in this brief. However, in light of the expansion of central banks’ power, reforms should aim to institute oversight of the newfound powers.