Europe and Central Asia Knowledge Brief

67 items available

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This is a regular series of notes highlighting recent analyses, good practices, and lessons learned from the development work program of the World Bank’s Europe and Central Asia Region.

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 67
  • Publication
    Applying Community of Practice Peer-to-Peer Learning Approach in Rural Kyrgyzstan
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-05) Saetova, Lilia; Uulu, Zhanybek Ybraiym; Kisunko, Gregory
    Lack of financial resources prompted many LSG to seek effective ways to mobilize and utilize local resources to improve living standards of the population, however, there was no platform to share best practices with other LSG. The project has assisted the Government in establishing such platform, collecting and sharing best practices. SUPPL – a demand-driven, recipient-executedproject designed based on successful pilots. An earlier pilot project confirmed a significantunmet demand for the Public Finance Management (PFM) capacity building of rural municipal servants and elected officials, and showed a good fit with the innovative peer-to-peer (PTP) learning approach. To satisfy this unmet demand, the Bank jointly with the Kyrgyz Republic State Agency for Local Self-Government and Interethnic Relations (SALSGIR) and with support from the KyrgyzMinistry of Finance (MoF) implemented a project with USD 1.1 million recipient executed grant through the ECA PFM Trust Fund. The project envisaged development and implementation of the PTP learning platform to engage all 453 rural LSG in the country. The main development objective of theSUPPL project, which became effective on June 19, 2015, was to support the Government in establishing countrywide Communities of Practice (COPs) of LSG financial officers, elected heads of LSG units and budget committee chairpersons of local councils. The project supported the use of the COP platform to increase capacity of the respective LSG representatives through innovative PTP learning approach.
  • Publication
    Mainstreaming Governance in Tajikistan through its Energy, Extractives, and Public Procurement Sectors
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-07) Mikulova, Kristina; Johns, Kimberly; Kunicova, Jana
    The governance partnership facility (GPF) supported program mainstreaming governance in Tajikistan portfolio (FY2010-14) was a landmark achievement in applying governance analysis and looking for entry points to improve transparency and accountability in key sectors in Tajikistan. This brief provides recommendations from its energy-efficiency audit, the extractive industries sector, and public procurement authority pilot program. In the long run, the government's goal is to use procurement performance measurement framework (PPMF) generated procurement performance assessments and annual procurement performance reports (APPRs) as feedback that inform policy design. If the reform momentum can be sustained, Tajikistan has a potential to gradually converge to good practices in public procurement and improve its good governance ratings over time.
  • Publication
    Capital Expenditures : Making Public Investment Work for Competitiveness and Inclusive Growth in Moldova
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-06) Coulibaly, Karen Stephanie; Diagne, Mame Fatou
    Moldova faces the challenge of meeting considerable public investment needs while preserving fiscal sustainability. With a rapidly aging population, high emigration, structural imbalances, and vulnerability to external shocks, Moldova will need to raise investment, productivity, and exports in order to achieve sustained growth and competitiveness. The World Bank's recently published Moldova public expenditure review (PER) focuses on capital expenditures and recommends reforms in public investment management and sector policies to raise cost effectiveness and allocative efficiency. Analyses for the PER were conducted using the BOOST public expenditure database developed by the World Bank. It provides recommendations for improving effectiveness and to enhance Moldova's competitiveness and achieve sustained inclusive economic growth.
  • Publication
    Empowering Communities : The Local Initiatives Support Program in Russia
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-06) Shulga, Ivan; Sukhova, Anna; Khachatryan, Gagik
    Prosperity from economic growth is not shared evenly among Russia's population and regions. Local communities and rural territories face serious development challenges: including poor living conditions, infrastructure, and services and lack of citizens' participation in decision-making processes. The Russian Federation Local Initiatives Support Program (RF LISP) aims to address community challenges by introducing a participatory approach to the development and rehabilitation of local-level social infrastructure. Specifically, LISP channels funds from regional budgets to finance participatory projects in poorer local communities. For the period 2009-14, LISP has been implemented in six regions and has resulted in more than 1,200 projects with over 1 million beneficiaries. Key factors for LISP success are the following: (i) mainstreaming of LISP into the national administrative system and budget process, and (ii) providing the Bank's technical assistance at all stages of project implementation to share international experience in community-driven development (CDD) projects, and ensuring transparency and quality of LISP procedures.
  • Publication
    Tajikistan : Reinvigorating Growth in Khatlon Oblast
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-06) Carneiro, Francisco
    This report supports a joint World Bank-IFC initiative to review and evaluate economic growth prospects for Khatlon oblast in order to develop a private sector-driven strategy for accelerating the region's growth over the medium term.
  • Publication
    A New Model for Job Creation in Armenia: Promoting More Effective Accumulation, Competition, and Connectivity
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-11) Bartsch, Ulrich
    In Armenia, more effective accumulation, together with greater competition and better connectivity with the rest of the world, will increase pressures on firms to compete and innovate and will thus reinvigorate job creation. In order to more effectively channel savings into investment in those industrial sectors with the best potential for growth and employment creation, a more sophisticated financial system is required. A recently released World Bank report1 finds that Armenias State Commission for the Protection of Competition (SCPEC) needs to be given better tools to carry out its work, and it also needs to shift its focus from price levels to more vigorously pursuing anticompetitive conduct. A liberalization of aviation would boost growth and job creation by better connecting people, ideas, and markets.
  • Publication
    Employment Recovery Stalls in Europe and Central Asia
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-04) Koettl, Johannes; Saiovici, Gady; Santos, Indhira
    Employment recovery stalls in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) continues to recover in most ECA countries, but the recovery remains fragile. Growth prospects remain poor in a number of countries where GDP continues to decline. This slowdown in the economic recovery is also evident at the sub-regional level. Unemployment has stabilized, with an average unemployment rate of 12 percent across the ECA region. Since the start of the crisis, men have been disproportionally hit by unemployment. The recent pace of job creation has not been sufficient to absorb the large pool of unemployed, resulting in growing long-term unemployment. Despite the rise in long-term unemployment, activity rates have increased or remained constant in most countries since 2008. ECA labor markets adjusted to the crisis not only through higher unemployment, but also through fewer work hours. Given the already low levels of employment in the region and a bleak demographic outlook, avoiding labor market detachment among the long-term unemployed, the inactive, and youth is the main challenge for policy makers in the near term.
  • Publication
    Croatia : A Strategy for Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-02) Madzarevic-Sujster, Sanja
    Croatia`s current economic challenges include sluggish growth, excessive public spending, high unemployment, and a deteriorating external environment. Croatian economy was making a fragile recovery and dealing with slow export growth, low investment, and persistent unemployment. At the end of 2011, Croatia gross domestic product (GDP) per capita (in purchasing power terms) declined to 61 percent average, a loss of 2 percentage points since 2008.The country incomplete structural reform agenda needs attention and action to promote greater competitiveness and a shift to productivity-based, private sector-led growth. It also faces the strategic challenge of maximizing the benefits of European Union (EU) membership, especially in terms of access to markets and the use of EU structural funds, requiring structural changes in the social sectors, education system, and business environment. Accelerating economic recovery requires Croatia to complete its currently unfinished structural reform agenda and shift to productivity-based, private sector-led growth. The government could also do more to: (i) reform product market regulation; (ii) remove administrative barriers to investments; (iii) reduce the logistics costs in trade; (iv) make the bankruptcy process more efficient; and (v) modernize contract enforcement and property rights.
  • Publication
    Serbia Country Economic Memorandum : Productivity and Exports
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-01) Sestovic, Lazar; Miovic, Peter
    In order to have both dynamic and better balanced growth, Serbia needs to rely more on exports. In the last decade, Serbia's growth has depended primarily on demand that was fueled by excessive debt finance. In the future, the Serbian economy would be better served by increasing its reliance on exports as a new, potentially powerful source of growth. Serbia's export share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is currently 25 percent, but that figure should be closer to 50-75 percent, considering that all European Union (EU) comparator countries1 have export shares of GDP of 60-80 percent. Some sectors of the economy are already better positioned than others to export. For example, sectors in the traditional export base of Serbia, such as food and some chemical products still have vast potential for growth. Agriculture is widely considered to have significant potential for improvement. Although Serbia has recently become a net food exporter, these exports could be substantially higher. The Serbian government's number one task is to accelerate reforms to create an environment that is highly conducive to export-led growth. Serbia will need to fundamentally alter its growth model in order to compete effectively in world markets. The past model of relying on excessive inflows of capital and credit coupled with a consumption boom has run its course in all European countries, including Serbia.
  • Publication
    Russian - Strengthening Access to Justice : A JSDF Grant to Empower Vulnerable Groups
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-01) Mukherjee, Amit; Poznanskaya, Ljudmilla; Rosha, Anjum; Schwartz, Olga
    Despite Russia's strong economic growth, over 14 percent of its population, more than 20 million people, still live in poverty. In 2008, the Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) provided a grant of US$1.98 million to help make the justice system in Russia more accessible and accountable to the poorest and most vulnerable groups in two regions of the country, Leningrad Oblast and Perm Krai. The grant was strongly supported by the Embassy of Japan and Russian regional authorities, who were involved from conceptualization to completion. The grant piloted two models of legal aid in these two areas, and it launched a collaborative initiative that enabled local executive and judicial branch officials and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to work together to achieve common goals. This JSDF grant has yielded some promising results. However, the sustainability of the legal aid networks established under the grant depends on ongoing support from the local authorities in each region.