Other Public Sector Study

314 items available

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http://hdl.handle.net/10986/2206

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ID4D Country Diagnostic: Central African Republic

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-10-19) World Bank

This diagnostic has been conducted with the sole purpose of serving the ongoing development of social protection policy in the country. It is the Bank’s hope that the report will be useful for social protection policy development as intended. The Bank has not agreed with the government to invest in the civil registration and identification sector. The government may consider the use of this report for the activities it will undertake to seek support from the international donor community for such an investment. The report is organized into the following sections: section one gives introduction. Section two examines the identity ecosystem in Central African Republic (CAR) and presents the stakeholders on the supply and demand sides, the identity schemes, the legal framework, and the specific post-crisis identity context; and section three presents the analysis conducted by the World Bank Group and details the main recommendations to build on so social protection actors can promote an efficient and reliable identity ecosystem that can serve the entire Central African population, starting from the most vulnerable.
Creating Disability-Inclusive ID System

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-11-17) World Bank

Access to identification is a vital priority. In developing countries, persons with disabilities are among those most likely to face barriers in accessing government services such as health and rehabilitation, public transportation, education, voting, financial services, and economic opportunities. For women and girls with disabilities and other persons with disabilities with intersecting identities, these barriers are multidimensional. Addressing poverty among persons with disabilities and their families requires solutions that address their differentiated and sometimes complex needs, a precondition of which is possessing official proof of identity. This report provides a model of the continuous nature of the ID lifecycle, suggesting some illustrative approaches to designing a disability-inclusive ID process at any stage in the lifecycle. The ID lifecycle comprises five phases, each allowing for disability-inclusive interventions. The five phases are: (1) planning and design; (2) outreach and engagement; (3) enrollment; (4) use of ID; (5) and monitoring and evaluation. The cycle presents examples of continuous activities which should be regularly revisited to ensure that ID systems are accessible to people with disabilities regardless of the stage of implementation of the ID system. While not exhaustive, and recognizing that country contexts differ, this cyclical model can be a useful planning tool, much like that used across the world by electoral commissions for inclusive voter registration.
Return on Investment of Public Support to SMEs and Innovation in Poland

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-12-31) World Bank

A Smarter Europe is a top priority of the European Union (EU), the core of which is innovation, economic transformation, and more competitive small and medium enterprises (SMEs). These themes account for a huge part of EU spending in the past, present, and future programming periods. Despite high expenditures, impacts on the economy often appear modest or are not well understood. EU, national, and regional policymakers want to know where and how to invest to get the highest return on investment (ROI). Poland was selected as the pilot country, since it is the largest recipient of EU funding, and has a rich set of support measures and implementing bodies. The remainder of the document is organized as follows. Section 2 summarizes the assessment of the needs of the Polish ecosystem, along with the portfolio mapping and policy mix analysis. Section 3 summarizes the functional analysis methodology and findings. Section 4 describes the ROI/effectiveness methodology and findings. And Section 5 offers conclusions and recommendations based on the combined analyses.
South Africa ID Case Study

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-05-01) World Bank

South Africa’s approach to identification offers valuable lessons for countries looking to increase the coverage, robustness, and use of their ID systems. Since the end of apartheid, South Africa’s national identification system has been transformed from a tool of oppression to one for inclusion and the delivery of social services. The ID system is now closely integrated with civil registration, boasts high coverage among all segments of the population, and has been instrumental for effective service delivery and a cost effective electoral process.
Creating a New Tourism Licensing and Grading System: Lessons from Rwanda

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019) International Finance Corporation

The tourism sector in Rwanda is growing rapidly, largely driven by gorilla trekking and the Meetings, Conventions, Incentives and Exhibitions (MICE) segments. Despite this growth and government prioritization of tourism, there had been a gap in the regulation of the tourism sector, which was potentially affecting the attractiveness of the Rwandan market as a tourism destination and reducing the competitiveness of firms providing tourism services. To help address this gap, the World Bank Group (WBG), through the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Advisory Services, provided technical assistance in Rwanda over three years to support the creation of a new tourism regulatory agency, operationalize two new regulations, and license over 400 tourism entities under challenging time and resource constraints. In working with the Government of Rwanda and other stakeholders, IFC learned several lessons that may be useful to other practitioners who are considering: how to create and develop a regulatory regime from scratch to respond to a specific regulatory gap; how to place an emphasis on implementation beyond pure policy work; and how to be flexible and innovative to make the system as efficient as possible under time and resource constraints. This note sets out what was achieved, how it was achieved, and what was learned in the process. Together with material on global best practices, it is designed to provide a practical case study and share implementation insight for.
Stimulating Business Angels in the Czech Republic

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-10) World Bank Group

This report provides a systematic assessment of business angel activities, and the ecosystem surrounding innovation finance, in the Czech Republic. Based on literature reviews, published data sources and local stakeholder interviews, the report distills findings related to the demand for and supply of risk investments, and offers policy recommendations for stimulating business angels. The report characterizes the Angel ecosystem as emerging with potential for growth. It is small both in terms of the number of investors and the amount invested. There appears to be a general lack of syndication of investments and concentration of investments in the capital (Prague) and in the information, communication, and technology (ICT) sector. On the demand side, a credible deal flow does exist, although it falls short of constituting a critical mass needed to support the development of the market. While issues in the local environment may affect the flow of angel investments, these are not insurmountable, based on the country’s competitive ranking on relevant global and European indicators. Finally, the report proposes a number of policy recommendations for enhancing business angel awareness and investments, including data collection and mapping of early stage market activities (short-term), creation of Czech National Angel Association (medium-term), and implementation of incentivization measures such as co-investment funds and tax incentives (long-term).
Private Sector Economic Impacts from Identification Systems

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018) World Bank

Identification systems are a core component of sustainable development policies in countries with diverse economic, demographic, and political contexts. The role of digital identification systems in the private sector is equally large. The efficient, accurate, and secure use of personal identity data is at the heart of most transactions, regardless of the industry in which they take place. The implementation of robust and inclusive identification systems at the national level offers the potential for large financial gains for private sector companies. As a companion piece to the World Bank’s identification for development (ID4D) work on fiscal savings for government agencies, this paper provides a first step toward developing a greater understanding of the financial benefits of identification systems for the private sector. By developing a framework for cost savings and revenue generation opportunities and aggregating existing case studies, it provides a preliminary assessment of expected benefits of government-backed identification systems for firms across a variety of industries. This paper is therefore intended to serve as a resource for governments and donors looking to gauge the potential impacts of implementing an identification system and for private sector leaders and industry groups to fruitfully engage on identity-related issues.
The Role of Digital Identification in Agriculture: Emerging Applications

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-01) World Bank

Agricultural development is one of the most powerful tools to end extreme poverty. Agriculture accounts for nearly one-third of global gross domestic product (GDP), and the majority of the world’s poor live in rural areas and make a living through agriculture. To end extreme poverty by 2030, most of the income gains will need to be made in rural areas, including by boosting smallholder farmers’ earnings from farming and off-farm activities.1 Increasing the ability of such smallholders to professionalize, improve their productivity, and generate additional income is therefore critical to both alleviate rural poverty and increase food security. Smallholder families have complex livelihoods. They typically rely on income from a variety of sources,including government safety nets, subsidies, and off-farm enterprises. Enabling these families to exit poverty will require innovative solutions to address critical challenges, such as (1) lack of access to financial services, (2) lack of adequate supply-chain traceability, (3) challenges related to the delivery of goods and services, and (4) gender inequality. When smallholder farmers lack government recognized identification (ID) documents, these and other challenges are further exacerbated. Without an official proof of identity, many smallholder farmers struggle to access services and subsidies and to seize new opportunities offered by innovations in mobile technologies, finance, and beyond. A robust, government recognized ID can help smallholder farmers formally register land and livestock, and access mobile, financial, and other services that would allow them to work, sell, and spend income formally. Thus, identification is an important building block to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture. This paper looks at three key applications of identification in agriculture to understand how these can help tackle some of the critical challenges, remove barriers to agricultural productivity, and enhance farmers’ livelihoods, including through: (1) increasing the effectiveness and inclusivity of subsidy programs; (2) enabling formal land and asset registration; and (3) improving data about farmers’ economic activity and needs. At the same time, there are challenges to maximizing the benefits of identification in agriculture. ID systems increasingly rely on digital infrastructures for authentication and identity verification. Although mobile and broadband coverage is growing at a rapid rate worldwide, rural areas often still lack the reliable mobile and Internet connectivity required for certain applications of digital IDs. Rural households are also less likely to have the digital literacy required to navigate digital ID systems and may be less able to monitor and hold authorities accountable for how their personal data are being used and shared. Therefore, any ID application in agriculture will need to consider how data protection and privacy safeguards may need to be adapted to rural contexts. In addition, ID applications in agriculture may face institutional arrangements and coordination challenges. In the presence of a foundational ID system, the Ministry of Agriculture or other implementer will need to coordinate with other areas of the government, including the ID provider. In the absence of a foundational ID system, the Ministry of Agriculture or other implementer will need to consider how they can meet their own needs while coordinating with other agencies and partners who may be implementing separate yet overlapping functional ID systems.
Internet of Things: The New Government-to-Business Platform

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-11-02) World Bank Group

The buzz around Internet of Things (IoT) has gathered momentum but the IoT phenomenon is poorly understood by governments and businesses. Governments are under pressure to become more innovative, evidence-based, and collaborative and IoT seems to offer opportunities such as increased competitiveness and innovation, and regulatory improvements that reduce the burden on business and increase compliance. In this report we examine the evidence on the ground to see how the theoretical potential of IoT implementation matches up with the reality on the ground and what can we learn from government agencies at the forefront of IoT implementation. The report draws on lessons from cities around the world (Germany, UK, Luxembourg, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Finland, Canada, USA, Japan, UAE, and India); it also provides a review of the IoT marketplace. The questions it answers include - what is IoT and why should governments care, how are different cities implementing IoT based solutions, and what are the main policy and other implications for government to fully utilize the potential of the technology while managing the associated risks and challenges? Findings include the fact that IoT implementation is still nascent in governments, the business models to scale pilots are still under-developed, the policy environment remains very patchy, and there is need to invest in digital capacity, data practices, and IoT infrastructure. The report includes a rough toolkit for government agencies.
Ukraine Fiscal Incentives for Science, Technology and Innovation Activities: Good Practice Review Report

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-11-01) World Bank

This report is one of four analytical pieces on Ukraine’s innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem developed by the World Bank’s Ukraine Technical Assistance on Innovation, supported by the Swedish Ukraine Financial and Enterprise Sector Recovery and Growth Trust Fund. This report reviews different international good practices in introducing and implementing fiscal incentives for supporting science, technology, and innovation (STI) and provides policy recommendations relevant to the implementation of such incentives in Ukraine. It focuses on tax incentives as an indirect financial support mechanism for the private sector’s research and development (R&D) and innovation activity. It identifies the costs and benefits of a variety of fiscal incentives (six different regimes) to support STI that have been widely used worldwide. It is important to note that the good practice examples outlined in this report have all been implemented as part of a broader agenda for strengthening the science and technology base of the countries in which they were put in place. Each of the policies, in isolation, would not have been sufficient to achieve the objectives of the government. The report describes the Ukrainian context, focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of Ukraine’s science and technology base, followed by a discussion of the recent