Institutional and Governance Review

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    CPIA Africa, June 2013: Assessing Africa's Policies and Institutions
    (Washington, DC, 2013-06) World Bank
    This report is the second in a series of annual reports describing the progress African countries are making on strengthening the quality of policies and institutions that underpin development. It presents Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) scores for the 39 African countries that are eligible for support from the International Development Association (IDA). The development literature identifies the components of the CPIA as being broadly relevant for sustaining growth and reducing poverty. The data provide some support for this association. All country groups exhibit similar patterns across the four CPIA clusters. The gap in scores between the macroeconomic management cluster and the governance cluster is just as pronounced for fragile as for non-fragile states. In contrast, the gap between the economic management cluster and the social policies and structural policies clusters is small. Overall, the macroeconomic policy stance in Sub-Saharan Africa was supportive of growth, with monetary policy focused on managing inflation and fiscal policy focused on pro-poor spending and infrastructure development. Inflation declined in 2012, thanks to a moderation in food and fuel prices and prudent monetary policy. However, an expansive fiscal policy translated into a weakening of fiscal balances. Debt levels also edged up, although they remained moderate. As the policy areas in this cluster are closely related, there tends to be co-movement in the scores for monetary and fiscal policy.
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    Governance in Albania : A Way Forward for Competitiveness, Growth, and European Integration
    (Washington, DC, 2011-06) World Bank
    Since its emergence from a turbulent post-communist transition, Albania has achieved remarkable progress in economic and social development. Governance improvements, especially in the effectiveness of public administration, have been instrumental to the country's impressive economic performance and improved human development outcomes. The Government has taken steps to improve public order and personal safety, particularly through efforts to crack down on violent and organized crime. Despite these positive developments, Albania continues to face significant governance challenges that will need to be overcome if the country is to achieve critical development objectives. Enduring politicization of the public administration and incomplete separation of powers, exemplified by instances of political interference in judicial processes, remain serious obstacles. The Government recognizes the need to accelerate progress on several dimensions of governance reform, particularly in light of its aspirations to European Union (EU) accession. This issue brief seeks to analyze the nature and recent evolution of Albania's governance environment, to identify the principal governance constraints to the achievement of development priorities-overall and in key sectors, and to outline recommendations for the way forward.
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    Better Regulation for Growth: Governance Frameworks and Tools for Effective Regulatory Reform
    (Washington, DC, 2010) International Finance Corporation ; Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency ; World Bank
    Regulatory reform has emerged as an important policy area in developing countries. For reforms to be beneficial, regulatory regimes need to be transparent, coherent, and comprehensive. They must establish appropriate institutional frameworks and liberalized business regulations; enforce competition policy and law; and open external and internal markets to trade and investment. This report examines the institutional set-up for and use of regulatory policy instruments in Zambia. It is one of five reports prepared on countries in East and Southern Africa (the others are on Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania). The report is based on a review of public documents prepared by the government, donors, and the private sector, and on a limited number of interviews with key institutions and individuals.
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    Regulatory Capacity Review of Rwanda
    (Washington, DC, 2010) International Finance Corporation ; Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency ; World Bank
    Regulatory reform has emerged as an important policy area in developing countries. For reforms to be beneficial, regulatory regimes need to be transparent, coherent, and comprehensive. They must establish appropriate institutional frameworks and liberalized business regulations; enforce competition policy and law; and open external and internal markets to trade and investment. This report analyses the institutional set-up and use of regulatory policy instruments in Rwanda. It is one of five reports prepared on countries in East and Southern Africa (the others are on Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia), and represents an attempt to apply assessment tools and the framework developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in its work on regulatory capacity and performance to developing countries.
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    Regulatory Capacity Review of Uganda
    (Washington, DC, 2010) International Finance Corporation ; Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency ; World Bank
    Regulatory reform has emerged as an important policy area in developing countries. For reforms to be beneficial, regulatory regimes need to be transparent, coherent, and comprehensive. They must establish appropriate institutional frameworks and liberalized business regulations; enforce competition policy and law; and open external and internal markets to trade and investment. This report analyses the institutional set-up and use of regulatory policy instruments in Uganda. It is one of five reports prepared on countries in East and Southern Africa (the others are on Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Zambia), and represents an attempt to apply assessment tools and the framework developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in its work on regulatory capacity and performance to developing countries.
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    Regulatory Capacity Review of Tanzania
    (Washington, DC, 2010) International Finance Corporation ; Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency ; World Bank
    Regulatory reform has emerged as an important policy area in developing countries. For reforms to be beneficial, regulatory regimes need to be transparent, coherent, and comprehensive. They must establish appropriate institutional frameworks and liberalized business regulations; enforce competition policy and law; and open external and internal markets to trade and investment. This report analyses the institutional set-up and use of regulatory policy instruments in Tanzania. It is one of five reports prepared on countries in East and Southern Africa (the others are on Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Zambia), and represents an attempt to apply assessment tools and the framework developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in its work on regulatory capacity and performance to developing countries.
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    Regulatory Capacity Review of Kenya
    (Washington, DC, 2010) International Finance Corporation ; Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency ; World Bank
    Regulatory reform has emerged as an important policy area in developing countries. For reforms to be beneficial, regulatory regimes need to be transparent, coherent, and comprehensive. They must establish appropriate institutional frameworks and liberalized business regulations; enforce competition policy and law; and open external and internal markets to trade and investment. This report examines the institutional set-up for and use of regulatory policy instruments in Kenya. It is one of five reports prepared on countries in East and Southern Africa (the others are on Zambia, Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania). The report is based on a review of public documents prepared by the government, donors, and the private sector, and on a limited number of interviews with key institutions and individuals.
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    "Strengthening Performance Accountability in Honduras" : Institutional Governance Review : Executive Summary
    (World Bank, 2009-03-09) World Bank
    Having achieved fundamental milestones in terms of representative democracy and institutional modernization, Honduras continues to face important challenges in its bid to provide public services with coverage and quality commensurate with the resources available to the country. Honduras has come a long way in its democratic development, with seven free elections held since 1981 and the military subordinated to civilian control. Since the 1980s, the country has undertaken key public sector management reforms and has all of the formal components of a modern democracy. However, its average rate of economic growth and its degree of progress in reducing poverty over the past two decades have been low relative to most other Latin American countries, at this growth rate, Honduras will reach the current income per capita of El Salvador ($2,530) in 2050. Efficiency of public spending continues to be very low compared to regional standards, and the capacity of the public administration insufficient for ensuring the minimum goal of universal coverage of basic services. A general conclusion, highlighted throughout the study, is the need to strengthen the country's accountability framework and in particular, the accountability of policymakers towards citizens and tax payers, and to focus the policy discussion on performance.
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    "Strengthening Performance Accountability in Honduras" : Institutional Governance Review : Background Chapters
    (World Bank, 2009-03-09) World Bank
    Having achieved fundamental milestones in terms of representative democracy and institutional modernization, Honduras continues to face important challenges in its bid to provide public services with coverage and quality commensurate with the resources available to the country. Honduras has come a long way in its democratic development, with seven free elections held since 1981 and the military subordinated to civilian control. Since the 1980s, the country has undertaken key public sector management reforms and has all of the formal components of a modern democracy. However, its average rate of economic growth and its degree of progress in reducing poverty over the past two decades have been low relative to most other Latin American countries, at this growth rate, Honduras will reach the current income per capita of El Salvador ($2,530) in 2050. Efficiency of public spending continues to be very low compared to regional standards, and the capacity of the public administration insufficient for ensuring the minimum goal of universal coverage of basic services. A general conclusion, highlighted throughout the study, is the need to strengthen the country's accountability framework and in particular, the accountability of policymakers towards citizens and tax payers, and to focus the policy discussion on performance.
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    Mauritania : Anti-Corruption Study
    (Washington, DC, 2008-09) World Bank
    This report provides analytic support to the National Anti-corruption Strategy (NACS) formulation, offers lessons from international experience on governance and anti-corruption (GAC) policy, and generally supports the Government and its development partners to better understand the phenomenon of corruption in Mauritania. The report is structured as follows: Chapter 2 focuses on the definition and measurement of corruption and the Mauritanian political economy. Chapter 3 focuses on corruption in public procurement. Chapter 4 concentrates on corruption in the courts of law. Chapter 5 deals with the extractive industries. Chapter 6 focuses on corruption from the perspective of the private sector, based on the results of the recent Investment Climate Assessment (ICA). On the basis of the analysis conducted in this report, the single most important message concerns the need for maintaining momentum and pressing ahead with the finalization of ongoing anti-corruption strategic thinking and legislation, and the implementation of already approved GAC laws and measures. Looking forward, the emphasis should shift from passing laws and rules to concrete implementation of procedures on a broader agenda of greater political accountability. Priority areas include: (1) independence of the media, (2) monitoring procedures (such as a governance diagnostic survey) and (3) the establishment of an effective mechanism through which the voice of citizens and users of public services can be heard.