Other Poverty Study
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Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa, home to more than 1 billion people, half of whom will be under 25 years old by 2050, is a diverse ...
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Publication
How-to-Guide Note for the World Bank Technical Assistance to Burundi for the Adoption of a Semi-automatic Pricing Mechanism in the Petroleum Sector
(Washington, DC, 2009-05-19)In May 2008, the government of Burundi requested Bank assistance to review the situation of the petroleum market, and evaluate the existing pricing mechanism. Following three Bank missions, a draft report was prepared and submitted to the Burundian authorities. Both the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Finance submitted comments on the draft report. The draft and the government s comments were discussed with a Bank economic mission in April 2009. The present note is focused on the petroleum pricing issue and takes into account the comments of the government and the conclusions of the discussions with the Bank mission in April. Following an analysis of the petroleum supply chain, the report presents the main conclusions and recommendations of the Bank s petroleum expert on the current pricing mechanism; summarizes the views of the authorities on recent changes in their management of domestic prices; and describes the new measures the government plans to take to consolidate the existing quasi-automatic price adjustment mechanism and to stabilize the market supply and the specific cost components. The report also discusses briefly how the social impact of price increases is already taken care of in the current pricing mechanism. -
Publication
Human Development in Uganda : Meeting Challenges and Finding Solutions
(Washington, DC, 2009-02)The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set ambitious targets for economic and social development, earmarking eight broad targets. Uganda appears to be on track to meet four of these goals by 2015: halving the poverty rate, eliminating gender disparities in primary school, halving the number of people without safe drinking water, and reversing the spread of AIDS. The country s performance is off track, however, in achieving substantial reduction in infant, child and maternal mortality, halving the number of people without access to sanitation facilities, eliminating gender disparities in secondary school, and achieving 100 percent primary school enrolment. This report seeks to identify challenges to improvement of human development outcomes, and to suggest ways of dealing with these challenges in order to improve service delivery, and therefore progress in human development indicators. It examines how well Uganda has moved toward achieving its PEAP targets for human development, focusing on three sectors: education, health care, and water and sanitation. The report argues that the key to improvement in social services - whether it be education, health care, or water and sanitation - is a new more efficient service delivery framework, a framework with improved links among the policymakers who shape broad goals, the providers of the services, and the customers who are the recipients. -
Publication
Mozambique Country Water Resources Assistance Strategy : Making Water Work for Sustainable Growth and Poverty Reduction
(Washington, DC, 2007-08)Mozambique's continuous efforts to sustain economic growth and reduce poverty face a number of constraints including its economic and political history, and its geography and climatic conditions. It is widely accepted that future economic growth of the country will continue to rely on its natural resources base and, specifically, on sustainable use of land and water resources. Mozambique has plentiful land and water resources that provide great potential for the production of a variety of crops, livestock development and industrial growth. However, high climate variability resulting in frequent recurrent droughts and floods, limited water resources availability in the most developed southern part of the country, high dependency on international water resources and very limited water management infrastructure result in the economy being highly vulnerable to water shocks and water being a constraint on growth and poverty reduction. The development of Mozambique Country Water Resources Assistance Strategy (CWRAS) was complementary to the Bank Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) process supporting its approach and priorities. It is consistent with the country's development priorities as defined in Second Poverty Reduction Support Strategy (PARPA II) and the sector priorities identified in the national water resources management strategy. The CWRAS' recommendations build upon the Bank's specific strengths vis-a-vis other development donors and, at the same time, are expected to guide the engagement of development partners and promote donor coordination and cooperation in the Mozambique's water resources sector. The main objective of this CWRAS is to assist the Government of Mozambique in prioritizing water resources interventions based on an analysis of Mozambique's changing socio-economic circumstances, and the areas of possible Bank engagement over the next 3-5 years. -
Publication
Ethiopia : Urban Labor Markets, Challenges and Prospects, Volume 1. Synthesis Report
(Washington, DC, 2007-03)This report focuses on a central element of Ethiopia's challenge: the urban labor market. The headlines, which are detailed in the report, are dramatic, and include the following: open unemployment has been persistently high and average duration is long, though recent trends suggest improved performance. There is a significant segmentation-two relatively privileged sector in the public and formal private sectors, a massive informal sector and a large stock of unemployed. Individual transitions across these states have increased over time, but remain relatively limited. Formal sector employment in urban areas is dominated by the state and manufacturing sector employment remains among the lowest in the world. The majority of those who are working in urban areas are engaged in informal sector activity, typically as a last resort but also as a persistent state. Average wages are low, especially for the unskilled and in the informal sector, but productivity is also very low. Women are especially disadvantaged in the labor market-and typically face worse outcomes with higher levels of unemployment, lower wages, and a greater concentration in the informal sector. Many youth seem to enter the labor market through low quality jobs in the informal sector or into unemployment. The structure of this report is as follows. Volume I synthesizes the emerging findings and policy implications while Volume 2 presents a series of thematic chapters which summarize the underlying background work. In this volume the next chapter sets the stage for the analysis by clarifying the metrics of the key labor market indicators. Chapter 3 looks at the structure of urban labor markets and what has hindered their ability to generate jobs despite the acceleration of growth in the last few years. Chapter 4 focuses on the challenge of urban unemployment, while Chapter 5 looks at the effects of migration on urban labor markets. The final chapter in this volume reviews the emerging policy agenda. -
Publication
Ethiopia - Urban Labor Markets : Challenges and Prospects, Volume 2. Background Paper
(Washington, DC, 2007-03)This report focuses on a central element of Ethiopia's challenge: the urban labor market. The headlines, which are detailed in the report, are dramatic, and include the following: open unemployment has been persistently high and average duration is long, though recent trends suggest improved performance. There is a significant segmentation-two relatively privileged sector in the public and formal private sectors, a massive informal sector and a large stock of unemployed. Individual transitions across these states have increased over time, but remain relatively limited. Formal sector employment in urban areas is dominated by the state and manufacturing sector employment remains among the lowest in the world. The majority of those who are working in urban areas are engaged in informal sector activity, typically as a last resort but also as a persistent state. Average wages are low, especially for the unskilled and in the informal sector, but productivity is also very low. Women are especially disadvantaged in the labor market-and typically face worse outcomes with higher levels of unemployment, lower wages, and a greater concentration in the informal sector. Many youth seem to enter the labor market through low quality jobs in the informal sector or into unemployment. The structure of this report is as follows. Volume I synthesizes the emerging findings and policy implications while Volume 2 presents a series of thematic chapters which summarize the underlying background work. In this volume the next chapter sets the stage for the analysis by clarifying the metrics of the key labor market indicators. Chapter 3 looks at the structure of urban labor markets and what has hindered their ability to generate jobs despite the acceleration of growth in the last few years. Chapter 4 focuses on the challenge of urban unemployment, while Chapter 5 looks at the effects of migration on urban labor markets. The final chapter in this volume reviews the emerging policy agenda. -
Publication
Job Creation in Mozambique : Is Labor Law Reform the Answer?
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-11)This paper analyzes the potential economic impact of changes to the labor laws proposed in 2006. The economic logic behind these reforms is reviewed, and the conditions under which the reforms could be expected to have the maximum impact on employment are isolated. Next, the experiences of selected developing countries which have undertaken similar reforms are reviewed, which showed the importance of initial conditions and economic trends outside of the labor market in ensuring a successful reform. Third, the main provisions of the proposed reforms are explained. The analysis concludes that given Mozambique s initial conditions, including strong demand from private sector employers for change, the scope of proposed reforms, and the potential for continued economic growth, the reforms should increase firms' profit margins, and as a result, a positive employment effect is possible in the medium term. The analysis also shows that although the reforms are deep compared with the starting point, even if reforms are enacted, Mozambique's labor market would still be classified as rigid by international benchmarks. The report concludes with a discussion of the possible social and poverty effect. In the short run, there is a danger of layoffs in some of the larger firms which had previously reported being overstaffed. If this happens, the poverty effect would certainly be negative in the short run. The concluding section notes that other countries have avoided these types of layoffs by introducing transition arrangements. -
Publication
Mozambique : Poverty and Social Impact Analysis, Primary School Enrollment and Retention, The Impact of School Fees
(Washington, DC, 2005-01)Though the national education system, including primary education, is neither compulsory, nor free in Mozambique, the school network has witnessed an impressive expansion since the signing of the Peace Agreement in 1992. Enrollments in lower primary education (Ensino Primario do Primeiro Grau or EP1, grades 1 through 5) have reached near universal proportions. In the period from 1992 to 2003, the gross admission rate to grade 1, grew from 59 percent to 123 percent, the gross enrollment rate (GER) in EP1 increased from 60 percent to 112.7 percent, and the number of lower primary schools rose from 2,800 to over 8,000. Indicators of the internal efficiency and quality of education, however, do not display the same pattern of development: efficiency and quality indicators, such as repetition and dropout rates, the proportion of qualified teachers, and the number of school shifts and of daily hours of instruction, have improved only marginally. Given that repetition and dropout rates are about 22 percent and 8 percent respectively in EP1, the high access rate evident in grade 1 is obviously declining dramatically, as pupils move through the system. There is considerable debate in Mozambique on formal and informal school fees, and on the potential impact of a fee reduction, or the elimination of fees on the demand for schooling. The main objective of this poverty and social impact analysis (PSIA) is to measure the impact of direct costs (formal and informal school fees, and related schooling expenses), and opportunity costs on enrollment and pupil retention in primary education. The analysis also provides insights into the contextual factors associated with low pupil retention, and an examination of the likely impact, and magnitude of policy alternatives aimed at lowering all costs, and mitigating contextual factors.