Development Policy Review

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  • Publication
    Botswana Development Policy Review: An Agenda for Competitiveness and Diversification
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-09) World Bank
    Botswana has been one of the most successful countries in the developing world over the last 40 years by many measures. Incomes have grown at a sustained pace, poverty has fallen, and the citizenry has become more educated. To be sure, poverty and income inequalities remain a problem, but rising standards of living have meant a better life for this generation of Batswana than any before it. The question facing the country leadership is whether this commendable performance can be sustained into the next generation. There are clouds on the horizon that cannot be ignored. Diamond earnings, the life blood of decades of prosperity, have flattened out. In per capita terms they are falling. Moreover, because revenues from diamonds going to the public sector have been falling for more than a decade, a growth model predicated upon an ever expanding state presence is not viable. Diamond earnings accruing to the state for subsequent redistribution have peaked. Employment and wages in the public sector have reached their natural limits as a share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP); recycling revenues from mining into the private sector, either directly or through the financial sector, has been inefficient with low social returns; and redistributive mechanisms to support social safety nets are also likely be approaching their limits. The country confronts the challenge of looking for new sources of growth outside of government.
  • Publication
    Guinea : Development Policy Review
    (Washington, DC, 2008-10) World Bank
    Following a decade of relatively strong growth, Guinea's economic performance weakened beginning in 2000. During 1992-1999, growth averaged 4.4 percent a year as the Government implemented a program of economic reforms aimed at liberalizing its economy and improving the environment for private sector investment. With a tightening of financial policies over the 1990s, inflation reached single digits by the late 1990s and the fiscal deficit averaged just over 3 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the second half of the 1990s. However, since 2000 growth slowed to an average of 2.8 percent a year and inflation increased to 39 by 2006. Guinea's worsening economic performance since 2000 reflects a weaker policy framework and exogenous shocks. Macroeconomic policies were relaxed, as fiscal policy was loosened and monetary policy became highly accommodative. Government revenues from the mining sector dropped, despite a recovery in the price of bauxite-Guinea's most important export. Also, a heightened level of regional insecurity and a resulting considerable influx of refugees in Guinea put pressure on government expenditures. As a result, the fiscal deficit rose to an average of 5 percent of GDP in 2000-2004. An accommodative monetary policy led to double digit inflation and a crowding out of credit to the private sector. A concomitant slowdown in the implementation of economic reforms, coupled with increased uncertainty in the political climate and deteriorating quality of public institutions, contributed to the slowdown in economic activity.
  • Publication
    Madagascar : Development Policy Review, Sustaining Growth for Enhanced Poverty Reduction - Technical annex
    (Washington, DC, 2005-05) World Bank
    The country's approach to poverty reduction is outlined in the 2003 Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, and draws on a development approach in which growth and poverty reduction are mutually reinforcing. Three areas of focus are identified in the PRSP: (1) restoration of law and improvements in governance; (2) promotion of broad-based growth; and (3) promotion of systems for establishing human and material security. The DPR presents Madagascar's development policy agenda in an integrated framework within which issues of policy consistency, priorities, and sequencing could be addressed. This DPR focuses on growth and growth strategy. It highlights the main structural and institutional impediments to achieving sustained growth and the factors constraining the ability of the poor to participate in economic growth. Emphasis is put on issues and sectors that contribute directly to growth: private sector development issues, including the availability of credit; elements of competitiveness such as infrastructure and education; and issues in sectors considered sources of growth. While the impact of government policy on poverty i s most directly felt through public expenditure and service delivery, these are dealt with in great detail in the accompanying PER, and will only be touched upon here in the context of government's growth strategy. Finally, the DPR identifies the main sources of vulnerability of the country.
  • Publication
    Poverty Reduction Support Credits in Uganda : Results of a Stocktaking Study
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2004-06-29) Miovic, Peter
    Uganda pioneered the use of budget support operations known as Poverty Reduction Support Credits (PRSCs) in the World Bank. PRSCs were designed to channel programmatic lending to support policy and institutional reforms in support of a country's Poverty Reduction Strategy, usually presented in the form of a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). In the case of Uganda the PRSCs were designed as a series of annual credits supporting a three year rolling program of reforms, based on Uganda's version of a PRSC, which is known as the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP) . The World Bank credits are in the form of untied budget support, financing all government activities, in the same way as domestic tax revenues. The PRSCs have been significantly co-financed by other donors in the form of grants which, like the World Bank credits take the form of untied budget support. The focus of this report is to study what has worked, what has not worked, and what could be improved in the Uganda PRSC process in the future.