Miscellaneous Knowledge Notes

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  • Publication
    Case Studies of Successful Reforms to Address the Challenges of Financing Education Systems Effectively: Increasing the Adequacy of Education Finance through Private Sector Resource Mobilization - The Case of Côte d’Ivoire
    (Washington, DC, 2023-11-20) World Bank
    Many low, and middle-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa face an education financing crisis. Exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, rapid improvements in access place severe pressure on the adequacy of public education expenditure, with average per-student public expenditure in the region being less than one-tenth that in Europe and Central Asia (World Bank, 2022). Some countries have successfully mobilized private sector finance to support education beyond the financing provided by government. These efforts have been particularly common in technical and vocational education and training (TVET), where countries including Tanzania and Zambia have introduced skills levies on businesses, which are channeled into dedicated funds to support TVET. However, such efforts are much rarer in basic education, which typically relies on conventional taxation, public debt, and development assistance for funding. This case study presents the example of Côte d’Ivoire, where a partnership between the government, private foundations, and the cocoa industry has mobilized significant amounts of finance to support the provision of basic education in cocoa-growing communities.
  • Publication
    What do We Know About Interventions to Increase Women’s Economic Participation and Empowerment in South Asia?: Financial Products
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-04-07) Javed, Amna; Zahra, Najaf; Boudet, Ana Maria Munoz
    The World Bank’s South Asia Region Gender Innovation Lab (SARGIL) is conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis of interventions with direct or indirect effects on measures of women’s economic empowerment. The review focuses on changes in labor market outcomes, income, and other empowerment indicators. The goal is to document what has and has not worked for women in the region (covering all countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka), understand the types of interventions implemented, and identify gaps in knowledge and action. Interventions are organized into five categories: Skills, Assets, Financial Products, Care, and Empowerment. This brief summarizes the main findings from the financial products category.
  • Publication
    Effectively Engaging the Private Sector in the Business Reform Process
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-12-09) Arlet, Jean Nicolas; Eknath, Varun; Popova, Oleksandra
    This brief discusses critical considerations for engaging the private sector in the process of reforming and implementing business regulations, along with channels and mechanisms that have been successfully used around the world. Using novel data from the Business Reform Committee project (BRC) covering 160 economies, the Brief presents global trends across income groups on the existence of reform committees and stages of engaging the private sector while reforms are being implemented. The brief further draws from experiences across countries on making policy decisions and the implementation of reforms more consultative, while providing critical caveats so that policy makers can determine what mechanisms are best suited for their country.
  • Publication
    Vietnam Macro Monitoring
    (World Bank, 2022-12) World Bank
    This brief discusses the economic development of Vietnam for the month of December 2022.The two drivers of economic growth, exports and domestic demand, are moderating. Softer external demand has weighed on Vietnam’s exports. The post-covid consumption rebound also appears to be fading and tighter domestic financial conditions and rising inflation could affect domestic demand going forward. Reflecting weaker external demand, growth of industrial production moderated to 5.3 percent (y/y) in November, the lowest rate since February 2022. CPI inflation reached 4.4 percent (y/y) in November, compared to 4.3 percent recorded a month earlier, with food and housing being two major contributors. Credit growth fell from 16.5 percent (y/y) in October to 15.0 percent (y/y) in November as domestic financial conditions tightened after the State Bank of Vietnam raised key policy interest rates in September and October. The Vietnamese dong gained slightly in value in November 2022 although the dong’s appreciation is one of the smallest compared to major currencies and currencies of its neighbors. As of end November, the national budget registered a 12.1 billion surplus (about 3 percent of GDP). With global financing conditions expected to remain tight and weakening external demand, Vietnamese monetary authorities could consider allowing further flexibility in the exchange rate to absorb changes in the external environment. Fiscal and monetary policy coordination will be critical to ensure price stability in light of accelerating domestic core inflation. A more prudent and prioritized expenditure strategy could focus on ensuring investments in human capital and resilient and green infrastructure to help bolster economic potential and resilience.
  • Publication
    Results from Myanmar Firm Monitoring: Round 13 Detailed Note
    (Washington, DC, 2022-09) World Bank
    On average, firms operated at 58 percent of their capacity in September 2022 - the lowest since December 2021. Almost half of all firms reported that volatility of the kyat was their most pressing concern, and 75 percent of all firms reported negative impacts of the kyat depreciation against the US dollar. In the three months to September 2022, 63 percent of firms raised prices, resulting in a 22 percent average increase in output prices over that period. Only 66 percent of firms were confident in remaining open for the next month - the lowest since December 2021.
  • Publication
    Replicating Local Good Practices in Regulating the Business Environment at the National Level: What Italy’s Experience Reveals
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-06-04) Bettarelli, Luca; Rooms, Tommaso
    Excessive bureaucracy at any time is a burden on companies. In the context of the recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, it is an additional hurdle that jeopardizes the ability of small and medium enterprises to survive. Using the example of Italy, and drawing on primary data from the World Bank’s Subnational Doing Business studies, this brief highlights how identifying local good practices in regulating the business environment and promoting them to national standards is one of the most powerful tools policy makers have to sustain firms’ creation and growth, reduce spatial inequality, and help create economic opportunities.
  • Publication
    COVID-19 in Papua New Guinea: Economic and Social Impacts - Insights from the Fifth Round of High Frequency Phone Surveys
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-05-31) World Bank
    The fifth round of the high frequency phone survey (HFPS) interviewed 2,630 households in June 2022 on the socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19, including employment and income, community trust and security and COVID-19 vaccination. It follows four rounds of surveys conducted from June 2020 to December 2021. The previous round of the HFPS (round 4), found that recovery was weak in 2021, with household incomes falling, and highlighted persistently low COVID-19 vaccination rates. While the third wave of COVID-19 was over by June 2022, PNG remains the least vaccinated country in the EAP region and could be vulnerable to future outbreaks of COVID-19. The World Bank estimates that the PNG economy contracted by 3.5 percent in 2020 before returning to positive economic growth of 1 percent in 2021. Stronger economic growth is projected for 2022, of 4 percent. In particular, strong growth is projected for the extractive sector (6.8 percent). However, the trajectory of economic recovery remains highly uncertain.
  • Publication
    Closing the Gender Leadership Gap: CRDB - Investing In Women To Increase Competitiveness
    (Washington, DC, 2022-03) International Finance Corporation
    There is a strong business case for attracting and retaining more women in the financial sector from the board to the workforce. Women contribute to enhanced profitability, innovation, and risk management. Over the course of two decades, numerous studies have been undertaken by investors, corporate governance organizations, consultants, and financial institutions all over the world, which have found “a positive association between board diversity and company performance, investor protection, and/or enhanced decision making” (Zecca 2021). In April 2019, CRDB, a longstanding IFC investment and advisory client, joined the IFC-led Finance2Equal initiative. The program aims to increase women’s participation in the financial sector as leaders, employees, customers, and entrepreneurs, by expanding women’s access to financial services and strengthening career opportunities. Under the initiative, IFC and CRDB co-sponsored a training program to help the bank reduce its gender gap in leadership by preparing women for senior positions. The objective of the training was to enhance CRDB’s pipeline of future women leaders. This training was designed to encourage more women to apply for senior roles at CRDB, and in Tanzania’s financial sector, as a whole (IFC 2020).
  • Publication
    Who’s the BOSs: Shedding New Light on Businesses of the State
    (Washington, DC, 2022) World Bank
    Supporters of state presence in economic activities cite the potential for catalyzing growth in new sectors or ensuring the wider availability of goods or services for the public, particularly in response to crisis. However, firms owned by the state are a potential source of market distortions and crowding out of the private sector through subsidies and preferential access to finance and land. The risks are even higher when state-owned enterprises (SOEs), a subset of businesses of the state, have the dual role of market player and regulator by controlling prices and licenses and raising barriers to potential competitors. Before addressing the contributions and difficulties generated by firms with state participation regarding the functioning of markets, counting the full extent of the state’s presence in the economy is critical. The World Bank’s new global Businesses of the the State database marks a big leap forward in gathering the necessary information for analysis. Comprehensive mapping of state ownership captures the extent of a state’s footprint and its links across firms and markets. The BOS database is the first systematic attempt to capture the decision of the state to participate in firms across the corporate sector. Seven new facts extracted from the World Bank’s new Businesses of the State (BOS) Global Database Project show the state’s footprint in commercial activities is bigger than previously captured, and in unexpected places.
  • Publication
    The Business Case for Investing in Women’s Employment in Iraq: Company Insight - Ashur International Bank for Investment - Advancing Women in Business Leadership & Management Banking/ Financial Sector, Iraq
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022) International Finance Corporation; World Bank
    In Iraq, women are generally absent from senior management and leadership positions, with an estimated representation of just 1 percent - even lower than the regional average. Women also account for more than half of the financial sector’s workforce, owing in part to government directives to appoint more females within Iraqi banks. In 2018, with International Finance Corporation (IFC) assistance, the Central Bank of Iraq required that every Iraqi bank’s board of directors should include at least one woman. Many private banks in Iraq are currently developing modern banking practices, with several of them prioritizing gender diversity in leadership positions. This company insight explores the experience of one such Iraqi bank, Ashur International Bank for Investment (Ashur Bank), which has been a pioneer for private banks in recruiting and promoting women to management positions. In Ashur Bank’s experience, these policies have improved the company’s performance, driven economic growth and profitability, and improved innovation. The sample size however is not statistically significant and cannot be used to draw definite conclusions but rather provides anecdotal evidence on the topic of this study.