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
    Jordan - Policies for High and Sustained Growth for Job Creation : Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan 2012 Development Policy Review (Vol. 1 of 2) : Synthesis
    (Washington, DC, 2012-06) World Bank
    Jordan's quest for long-term, inclusive and sustainable growth has remained largely elusive. By the Growth and Development Commission's measure of success, namely, an average growth rate of 7 percent over 30 years, Jordan's growth record cannot be dubbed 'successful'. This Development Policy Review (DPR) shows that sustaining growth and reducing unemployment is possible: Jordan has a strong human capital base, a large endowment in engineers, doctors, accountants, Information Technology (IT) specialists and a substantial highly-skilled diaspora (500,000 educated Jordanians abroad, 8 percent of the population). Furthermore, the market-oriented reforms of the early 2000s have made Jordan one of the most open economies in the Middle East and North Africa Region and have led to the emergence of dynamic non-traditional sectors (e.g., information and communication technologies, health tourism and business services). What is missing are: (i) an adequate and stable institutional framework for policymaking and long-term business development; (ii) good fiscal policies to manage shocks and maintain macroeconomic stability; good institutions and macroeconomic stability were identified by the growth commission as two of the five common characteristics of successful growth experiences; and (iii) further growth-enhancing structural reforms.
  • Publication
    Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan - Development Policy Review : Improving Institutions, Fiscal Policies and Structural Reforms for Greater Growth Resilience and Sustained Job Creation (Vol. 1 of 2)
    (Washington, DC, 2012-06) World Bank
    Jordan's quest for long-term, inclusive and sustainable growth has remained largely elusive. By the Growth and Development Commission's measure of success, namely, an average growth rate of 7 percent over 30 years, Jordan's growth record cannot be dubbed 'successful'. This Development Policy Review (DPR) shows that sustaining growth and reducing unemployment is possible: Jordan has a strong human capital base, a large endowment in engineers, doctors, accountants, Information Technology (IT) specialists and a substantial highly-skilled diaspora (500,000 educated Jordanians abroad, 8 percent of the population). Furthermore, the market-oriented reforms of the early 2000s have made Jordan one of the most open economies in the Middle East and North Africa Region and have led to the emergence of dynamic non-traditional sectors (e.g., information and communication technologies, health tourism and business services). What is missing are: (i) an adequate and stable institutional framework for policymaking and long-term business development; (ii) good fiscal policies to manage shocks and maintain macroeconomic stability; good institutions and macroeconomic stability were identified by the growth commission as two of the five common characteristics of successful growth experiences; and (iii) further growth-enhancing structural reforms.
  • Publication
    Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan - Development Policy Review : Improving Institutions, Fiscal Policies and Structural Reforms for Greater Growth Resilience and Sustained Job Creation (Vol. 2 of 2)
    (Washington, DC, 2012-06) World Bank
    Jordan's quest for long-term, inclusive and sustainable growth has remained largely elusive. By the Growth and Development Commission's measure of success, namely, an average growth rate of 7 percent over 30 years, Jordan's growth record cannot be dubbed 'successful'. This Development Policy Review (DPR) shows that sustaining growth and reducing unemployment is possible: Jordan has a strong human capital base, a large endowment in engineers, doctors, accountants, Information Technology (IT) specialists and a substantial highly-skilled diaspora (500,000 educated Jordanians abroad, 8 percent of the population). Furthermore, the market-oriented reforms of the early 2000s have made Jordan one of the most open economies in the Middle East and North Africa Region and have led to the emergence of dynamic non-traditional sectors (e.g., information and communication technologies, health tourism and business services). What is missing are: (i) an adequate and stable institutional framework for policymaking and long-term business development; (ii) good fiscal policies to manage shocks and maintain macroeconomic stability; good institutions and macroeconomic stability were identified by the growth commission as two of the five common characteristics of successful growth experiences; and (iii) further growth-enhancing structural reforms.
  • Publication
    Sustainable Colombia : A Comprehensive Colombian Footprint Review
    (Global Footprint Network, 2010-06-30) Ewing, Brad
    During the past several months, the Ministry of Environment, Housing and Territorial Development of Colombia has been researching potential indicators that would be useful to assess and possibly adopt among which included the ecological footprint. This work was commissioned in order to provide the Ministry with a deeper understanding of the ecological footprint and to train a number of its staff on the scope of the footprint in order to support internal evaluations. As part of this exploratory phase, global footprint network held an ecological footprint training workshop in Bogota, Colombia, from May 21 to June 2, 2010, for an audience mostly comprised of Ministry officials, staff, and related institutions. In addition, global footprint network conducted a more in-depth analysis of Colombia's ecological footprint to determine if there is existing in-country data that is more accurate, comprehensive, and up-to-date than the data reported to the United Nations (which is used for current Footprint calculations). This process will create a more refined calculation and help identify areas of improvement for data collection. A second focus of the work was having an initial understanding of how the ecological footprint of Colombia might be used in the future to support decision making. For this, we explored two main areas: how the ecological footprint of Colombia plays out across its sectors, and the linkages between biodiversity and the ecological footprint. At the time of writing this report, global footprint network is still attempting to obtain the necessary data (input-output tables) that will enable such a sectoral view, and is assessing the availability of data for a more 'quality-quantitative' economic linkage assessment between the ecological footprint and biodiversity.