Other Public Sector Study
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Publication
Delivering Together: Using Indonesia's Village Law to Optimize Frontline Service Delivery
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-08-19)Over the past twenty years, Indonesia has pursued an ambitious policy agenda for decentralization. Indonesia's subnational governments play a key role in providing frontline services. In 2014, Indonesia's Village Law ushered in a new chapter in the country's decentralization agenda. The law establishes a legal and financial foundation for villages to contribute to Indonesia's rural development. In 2020, village transfers accounted for around ten percent of all subnational transfers, playing an important role in Indonesia's Coronavirus (COVID-19) response strategy. Despite these positive results, several frontier issues in the overall decentralization agenda hinder villages' contributing potential to improving frontline service delivery. This report categorizes these structural challenges into four broad categories of regulatory challenges, coordination gaps, limited capacity building systems, and fragmentation in accountability systems. The report aims to show how overcoming these structural challenges can enable the government to institutionalize systems of accountability and participation into its wider service delivery framework. -
Publication
Archipelagic Economies: Spatial Economic Development in the Pacific
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-07-12)This study explores the far-reaching economic consequences emerging from the archipelagic nature of most Pacific Island countries (PICs). The dispersion of populations across thousands of miles of ocean and hundreds of islands magnifies the economic disadvantages arising from the remoteness and small size that characterize the PICs as a whole. At the same time, population dispersion creates extraordinary challenges related to public service delivery, connectivity, migration and urbanization, and the equity and inclusiveness of economic development. This study focuses on these challenges in pursuit of two main objectives: deepening the understanding of socio-economic conditions on the PICs’ outer islands and the drivers of migration from outer islands to main islands; and reviewing the policy and investment options for fostering the socio-economic development of outer islands populations. This overview summarizes the main findings in five parts. First, the authors present the objectives and outline of the full report. This is followed by a section which explains how the PICs’ external and internal geography are key determinants of socio-economic development outcomes and spatial inequalities. The third part presents data on spatial inequality with respect to a range of socio-economic indicators, public services, connectivity, and migration. In the fourth part, the authors discuss interactions between geographic dispersion and key political economy issues that shape spatial economic policy decisions and outcomes. The report concludes with a summary of policy options for dealing with the development challenges arising from geographic dispersion. -
Publication
Mongolia - Towards a High Performing Civil Service: Reform Progress and Challenges
(World Bank, Ulaanbaatar, 2020-12)This report reviews Mongolia’s civil service in the ten years since the World Bank’s (WB) 2009 civil service assessment. An important milestone was the passing of a new Civil Service Law (CSL) in late 2017, by the State Great Hural, which became effective January 1, 2019. This report reviews recent developments in the light of the new law, paying particular attention to three areas critical to successful implementation. The report is optimistic that Mongolia, with stronger foundations in place, is now better placed to move forward improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the civil service. However, this will require determined leadership, with some important, challenging strategic and technical decisions to make on the way forward. The report ends with a chapter of conclusions and recommendations, with suggestions on sequencing and how to monitor and evaluate the new arrangements. -
Publication
Assessing the Effectiveness of Public Research Institutions: Fostering Knowledge Linkages and Transferring Technology in Malaysia
(World Bank, Kuala Lumpur, 2020-10)The transition to a more innovation-based growth model is even more urgent in the current uncertain global context[1]. While the GDP growth rate has proven resilient in recent years, declining oil and gas output, coupled with economic shocks, including the recent COVID-19 pandemic, havedented the growth momentum. In this difficult context, a sustained increase in private investment, coupled with improvements in productivity willbe necessary to maintain a sustainable economic growth trajectory that enables Malaysia to reach high-income status. There is a significant body ofevidence to demonstrate a positive correlation between levels of innovation and productivity. Malaysia recognizes the need to embrace an innovation-driven growth model to weather the current global crisis and achieve its aspirations of becoming a high-income nation. Malaysia hastransformed what was once an agricultural economy, to one that is manufacturing-led. Recognizing the importance of productivity led growth model,research and development (R&D) resources and expenditures in Malaysia grew over the years as did policy efforts through reforms and improvements to bolster educational as well as science, technology and innovation capabilities and outcomes. -
Publication
Government Pension Fund Thailand Environmental, Social, and Governance Weight and Score: Asset Valuation Methodology
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-09-22)As one of the largest pension funds in Thailand, government pension fund (GPF) is fully aware of its importance as a universal owner and of its role supporting sustainable global values within the context of environmental, social, and governance (ESG). In 2018, GPF publicly announced its commitment to ESG investing and its intention to be the leader in ESG investing and initiatives in Thailand. Since then, GPF has pursued its mission through co-operation with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Bank, and the PRI and through initiating and leading collaborative engagements with local institutional investors and with GPF’s external fund managers, both domestic and international. This document provides a detailed description of the approach, explaining how one analyze and weight ESG factors at the sectoral and at the company or issuer level, and how one incorporates these into asset valuation and pricing. The aim is to make the methodology transparent to concerned stakeholders and to share ideas to institutional investor peers. -
Publication
The Welfare and Distributional Effects of Increasing Taxes on Tobacco in Vietnam
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-06)This paper assesses the welfare and distributional effects of raising taxes on tobaccoin Vietnam. Tobacco taxes are recognized as effective policy tools to reduce tobaccoconsumption and to improve health outcomes. However, policy makers often hesitateto use them because of claims of their potentially regressive effects. According to thoseclaims, poorer households are particularly hurt by tobacco tax policies, as cigarettepurchases represent a larger share of their budgets relative to higher-income smokers.The paper argues that the claims on the regressive effects of tobacco tax policies arebased on naive, shortsighted, and incorrect estimations. Tobacco-related illnessesdamage health outcomes and the quality of the lives of smokers and their families, whilethey also cost billions of dollars in medical expenditures and losses in human capital andproductivity every year. Tobacco consumption imposes heavy economic burdens onhouseholds and governments, in addition to its well-known negative health and socialimpacts. Raising taxes on cigarettes dissuades consumption, hence improving healthoutcomes, adverting premature deaths, and reducing direct and indirect economic costs.The analysis applies the Extended Cost Benefit Analysis (ECBA) methodology to simulateempirically the costs, as well as the benefits of increasing the prices on cigarettes onthe welfare of Vietnamese households. Following a well-established body of literature,the ECBA acknowledges that there may be short-term direct negative effects of raisingprices on tobacco, as smokers can struggle to continue to purchase tobacco with theirunchanged household budgets. However, the model also incorporates two of the mainbenefits of reducing tobacco consumption by increasing taxes: (a) the reduction insmoking-related medical expenses borne by households and (b) the additional incomesthat households can earn by preventing years of productive life lost due to smoking attributablepremature deaths. A critical contribution of the ECBA is to incorporate decile-specific price elasticities of demand for cigarettes, to quantify the behavioral responses or sensitivity of smokers in different income groups to changes in cigarette prices. To the knowledge of the authors, this is the first available empirical exercise to estimate price elasticities by income decile in Vietnam. Consistent with the literature and with empirical findings in other countries, the price elasticities of demand for cigarettes are larger for lower-income households. Lower income smokers are likely to reduce their tobacco consumption more drastically, when faced with a price increase. The ultimate distributional effect on welfare of the increasein the price of cigarettes due to tax increases will then depend on assessing the potentialbenefits against the short-term costs. -
Publication
Regulatory Governance for Development and Growth: Malaysia's Experience with Good Regulatory Practices
(World Bank, Malaysia, 2019-06)Good Regulatory Practices (GRP) are a systematic application of tools, institutions, and procedures that governments can mobilize to ensure that regulatory outcomes are effective, transparent, inclusive, and sustained. Other terms used for GRP include ‘regulatory governance’ and ‘better regulation.’ Among the most common GRP tools used by governments are: public consultation, ex ante regulatory impact analysis (RIA), ex post review of existing regulations, administrative simplification, access to laws and regulations, forward regulatory planning, and regulatory oversight functions. This report focuses on GRP because by improving the regulatory environment, they can boost conditions for sustainable growth and investment. This is evidenced, among others, in the World Bank Group’s Global Investment Competitiveness Report 2017-2018, which surveyed 750 investors in developing and transition economies. The report found that next to ‘political stability and security’, the ‘legal and regulatory environment’ was the most important consideration of senior executives when making investment decisions (WBG, 2018). Similarly, evidence shows a positive relationship between the improvement of the regulatory environment and aggregate investment (and economic growth), suggesting that countries stand to gain from a broad push for streamlining regulations and procedures affecting business (Eifert, 2009). The report reflects on Malaysia’s formal experience with GRP because, although launched only relatively recently, results have been remarkable. Malaysia has demonstrated that more business-friendly regulations and a more favorable regulatory environment can contribute to economic growth and investment. Moreover, Malaysia’s regulatory reform success has been reflected in many international indicators, such as the Global Indicators of Regulatory Governance, Worldwide Governance Indicators, Doing Business, (all produced by the WBG) and those from the World Economic Forum that measure the burden of government regulations and transparency of the policymaking process. International indicators measuring GRP performance show that Malaysia is converging with high-income OECD countries. -
Publication
Leveraging ICT Platforms to Foster Citizen Engagement For Enhanced Public Accountability: The Korean Experience
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-05-10)This learning note aims to document the experience of the Board of Audit and Inspection of Korea (BAI) and the online administrative appeals hub system of Korea’s Central Administrative Appeals Commission (CAAC) in leveraging ICT platforms for citizen engagement. The note both analyzes participatory practices and examines how the use of ICT platforms contributed to enhance public outreach by making citizen engagement in public accountability more cost-effective, scalable, transparent, and inclusive. The learning note targets accountability institutions (such as supreme audit institutions, anti corruption agencies,and so on), as well as representatives from civil society organizations and citizens around the world interested in knowing more about the experience of Korea, including the challenges and opportunities, in leveraging ICT tools to foster citizen engagement for enhanced public accountability. -
Publication
Digital Government and Open Data Readiness Assessment
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-02)This report, composed of two separate themes of Digital Government Readiness Assessment (DGRA) and Open Data Readiness Assessment (ODRA), is intended to help government assess their digital environments and frame their own strategies.In order to assess the potential for a Digital Enabling Government Initiative (DEGI) for Vietnam, this report compiles two chapters of aforementioned DGRA and ODRA. Specifically, it assesses potential opportunities and challenges of improving digital government and open data initiatives in the country. Although DGRA and ODRA are two separate assessments with different dimensions evaluated, they take a similar methodological approach from a broader point of view, starting with the desk research and later expanding to scoping mission. Therefore, both chapters of DGRA and ODRA are similar in format but outlined in respective assessment dimension and individual indicators. Since its onset in the fall of 2017, intensive desk research was conducted, and a field mission was carried out to confirm preliminary findings and uncover additional insight during a specific period in time, which means that during the course of analysis and writing additional developments could have been made. This is similar to the United Nations global e-government development report, which assesses progress during a “snapshot” in time.DGRA, the first part of the report, aims to evaluate Vietnam’s current potential for digital government development across seven key dimensions of leadership and governance; user focus; business process change; capabilities; culture and skills; shared infrastructure; data driven; and cybersecurity, privacy and resilience. Meanwhile, ODRA assesses Vietnam’s open data policy through evaluating eight different dimensions of leadership; policy/legal framework; institutional structure; data within government; demand; citizen engagement; funding; and infrastructure.The DGRA chapter focuses on digital government, which is a core part of Digital Economy as public sector delivers information and services more effectively and make them accessible to its citizens.The DGRA also measures the citizen’s demand for digital government services as well as integration and infrastructure policies to delve deeper into the opportunities and challenges the country faces in its digital development journey. The assessment includes a step-by-step analysis of specific components of digital government and presents an action plan to address the challenges identified for improvement.ODRA, the second part of the report, focuses on the country’s open data policy. Open data refers that the data must be both legally and technically open to public, thus placed in the public domain or under liberal terms of use with minimal restrictions, and that the data is published in machine-readable and preferably in non-proprietary electronic formats, which enables everyone to access and use data with freely available software tools.This report, bringing DGRA and ODRA assessments altogether, aims to help raise awareness of digital government and open data, two critical topics as Vietnam prepares its next step for the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0). Further, it hopes to serve as a useful resource for the top government leadership in identifying areas of relative strengths and weaknesses to help improve digital government and open data at the same time. -
Publication
Mapping Indonesia’s Civil Service
(World Bank, Jakarta, 2018-05-21)Indonesia’s civil service has expanded by 25 percent in the last 12 years, which presents opportunities for the government of Indonesia (GoI) to work toward the goal of reducing poverty and enhancing social welfare. Yet civil servants must be skilled, knowledgeable, and effective at their jobs to maximize their contribution to society and the economy. This report examines an original data set constructed from GoI data on all the country’s active civil servants to examine personal characteristics including age, gender, education level (which proxies for skill), and promotions. It addresses two important questions: 1. Are highly skilled and knowledgeable workers currently being attracted, recruited, and promoted?; 2. Are civil servants from historically underrepresented groups, including women, being given equal opportunities for advancement and promotion? The study recommends government action in three policy areas: 1. Increase promotion opportunities for women and increase their overall representation in senior positions; 2. Distribute skilled civil servants more evenly throughout the country by improving the incentives for highly skilled service providers to rotate into poor and remote regions; 3. Plan for the upcoming wave of retirements within the civil service by recruiting more women from top universities and hiring medical and teaching staff only from licensed and accredited institutions.