Institutional and Governance Review

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  • Publication
    CPIA Africa, August 2020: Safeguarding Human Capital during and beyond COVID-19
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-08-12) World Bank
    The 2020 Africa Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) report covers the period from January to December 2019. The addition of Somalia brought the number of the region’s International Development Association (IDA)–eligible countries to 39. The overall CPIA score for the region’s 39 IDA-eligible countries came in at 3.1, the same as in the previous three years, in a context of moderating per capita growth. The average scores for most of the CPIA clusters trended down in 2019. While the average score for the economic management cluster was unchanged from last year’s assessment, the average scores for the other three clusters—structural policies, social inclusion, and public management and institutions—declined, indicating that the quality of policies and institutions in the region’s IDA countries weakened in 2019. The weakening of structural policies was reflected in the decline in the quality of trade policy, uneven improvements in the regulations affecting factor and product markets, and further deterioration of the financial sector performance. In the area of social inclusion, many countries experienced a decrease in the quality of service delivery that affects access to and quality of health and education services. In the broader area of governance, limited progress was made in strengthening property rights, and transparency and accountability. In addition, the quality of public administration declined, and financial management systems and revenue mobilization capacity weakened in many countries.
  • Publication
    CPIA Africa: Strengthening Debt Management Capacity
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-07-31) World Bank
    The 2019 Africa Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) report covers the period January to December 2018. Over this period, the average quality of policies and institutions in International Development Association (IDA)-eligible countries remained unchanged, amid decelerating growth across the region. The overall CPIA score for IDA countries in Sub-Saharan Africa was 3.1 in 2018, the same as 2017, reflecting the slow progress in improving the quality of policy and institutional frameworks in the region.
  • Publication
    Actionable Regulatory Governance Indicators for UE Regions
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-06-13) World Bank
    The European Union’s Cohesion Policy is its biggest investment instrument. It supports the Europe 2020 strategy of smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth. With a budget of €351.8 billion for 2014–2020, the Cohesion Policy accounts for around one-third of the EU budget. The Cohesion Policy is primarily implemented through investments in EU regions and cities. Local and regional governments in the EU are responsible for more than half of all public investment. There is a growing focus on the importance of good governance to ensure effective implementation. The European Commission’s 6th Cohesion Policy report notes that governance problems not only delay the implementation of Cohesion Policy programs but also reduce the impact of these investments. The report states: ‘a lower standard of governance can affect the impact of Cohesion Policy both directly and indirectly. In the first place, it can reduce expenditure if programs fail to invest all the funding available. Secondly, it can lead to a less coherent or appropriate strategy for a country or region. Thirdly, it may lead to lower quality projects being selected for funding or to the best projects not applying for support at all. Fourthly, it may result in a lower leverage effect because the private sector is less willing to co-finance investment.’ The purpose of this report is to develop and test a set of actionable indicators for the regulatory frameworks of EU regions. Deregulatory measures focusing on ‘fixing broken regulations’ are a necessary and important element of investment climate reforms. However, gains from one-off initiatives aimed at cutting costs and procedures are often reversed if the responsible institutions, tools, and incentives are not changed.
  • Publication
    CPIA Africa, July 2017: Assessing Africa's Policies and Institutions
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-07) World Bank Group
    Sub-Saharan Africa faced another challenging year in 2016. Economic activity continued to weaken, amid less favorable terms of trade, slowdown in global growth, and difficult domestic conditions. Output growth decelerated sharply to 1.3 percent, the slowest pace in over two decades and not as stellar as the average annual growth of around 5 percent in the pre-global financial crisis period of 1995–2008. Regional growth in 2016 was insufficient to raise gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, which contracted by 1.3 percent. At the same time, Sub-Saharan Africa's poverty rate remains high: 41 percent of the region's population—nearly 390 million people—were living in extreme poverty in 2013. Weak economic performance threatens gains in poverty reduction, and the region urgently needs to regain momentum on growth and make it more inclusive.
  • Publication
    CPIA Africa, June 2015: Assessing Africa's Policies and Institutions
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-06) World Bank Group
    The Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) Africa report describes the progress African countries are making on strengthening the quality of their policies and institutions. Some of the results from this report include: The overall quality of policies and institutions in countries in Sub-Saharan Africa was unchanged in 2014, but there was much variation in performance across countries. More than half the countries in the region saw a change in their policy environment: 10 countries experienced an improvement in their overall CPIA score, and an equal number saw a deterioration. There were divergent trends across policy clusters. Economic management weekend on the back of continuing fiscal policy slippage, as the sharp drop in commodity prices underscored weaknesses in the fiscal framework of several of the regions countries. By contrast, there was some strengthening in the governance cluster, with nine countries showing improvements in scores, more than twice the number of countries with declines. The greatest progress in this cluster was in the quality of budgetary and financial management.
  • Publication
    CPIA Africa, June 2014: Assessing Africa's Policies and Institutions
    (Washington, DC, 2014-06) World Bank Group
    This report describes 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). This year's report expands coverage to include Djibouti and Yemen from the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA). The scores, which are on a scale of 1 to 6 with 6 being the highest, are an indicator of the quality of these countries' policy and institutional framework across 16 dimensions grouped into four clusters: economic management (Cluster A), structural policies (Cluster B), policies for social inclusion and equity (Cluster C), and public sector management and institutions (Cluster D). The overall quality of policies and institutions in Sub-Saharan African countries held steady in 2013, with divergent performance across countries. The average CPIA score for Sub-Saharan Africa held steady at 3.2 in 2013. But beyond the flat regional average, there was considerable divergence in country performance. For the region's IDA borrowers, scores were in a range of 3.9 to 2.0. A broad-based deepening of policy reforms lifted Rwanda's CPIA score in 2013, and the country joined Cabo Verde and Kenya at the top of the score range. Other top performers include Burkina Faso, Senegal, and Tanzania (all with scores of 3.8). South Sudan and Eritrea remained at the low-end of the score range (2.1 and 2,0, respectively), weighed down by deep policy and governance challenges. The quality of policies and institutions in MENA countries lags behind the average for middle income countries in all CPIA categories with scores lower relative to the Sub-Saharan African IDA country average. Since 2005, neither Yemen nor Djibouti has improved its overall rating; indeed, Yemen's overall policy and institutional score actually declined. The average CPIA score for countries in MENA was 3.0 in 2013, unchanged from 2012. Both Djibouti and Yemen had unchanged scores, indicating that despite unsettled conditions in the region and lingering challenges in global economic conditions, these countries generally opted to maintain their existing policy framework. Djibouti's CPIA score (3.1) was slightly higher than the average while Yemen's was on par with the average.
  • Publication
    Jamaica : Parliamentary Oversight of Public Finances--An Institutional Review
    (Washington, DC, 2013-06-10) World Bank
    Sound legislative oversight of public finances is crucial to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of public spending. All national governments, and particularly those that are accountable to their citizens through free elections and the voice of civil society, are concerned with the efficiency and efficacy of public finances. More broadly, well-functioning parliaments promote good governance; enhance transparency and accountability, including for public expenditures and their results; widen public discourse on national priorities and options; and build better partnerships between officials and representatives and their electorate. In all this, those among the citizenry with the least have the most to gain. This report responds to a request from the Government of Jamaica to review the structure and capacity of the Parliament of Jamaica to undertake its constitutional role with respect to oversight of the nation's public finances. Jamaica's Parliament is the country's supreme legislative body, consisting of an elected House of Representatives and an appointed Senate (Upper House), as well as the Queen or her representative, as the ceremonial head, and the Governor General. The Government of Jamaica has amended various legislations to adopt a Fiscal Responsibility Framework (FRF). The FRF includes specific fiscal targets as well as provisions to include the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and public service control over expenditures and lending.
  • Publication
    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.
  • Publication
    “Governance in the Protection of Immovable Property Rights in Albania: A Continuing Challenge” : A World Bank Issue Brief - Second Edition
    (Washington, DC, 2012-04) World Bank
    Despite several attempts at reform, immovable property rights in Albania are not adequately secure and represent an important governance challenge. Problems have resulted from incomplete first title registration, the lack of accurate cadastral records, and, in many cases, the absence of reliable evidence of ownership. Although Albania has adopted legislation calling for restitution or compensation for owners whose property was expropriated under communism, implementation is incomplete. In Albania, rapid internal migration has resulted in informal occupation of land and unauthorized construction on a mass scale, thus compounding the problems associated with the incomplete transfer of property. During the 1990s, as much as one-third of the population of some northern and mountainous regions migrated to urban, peri-urban, and coastal areas in search of income generation opportunities, despite the lack of adequate housing infrastructure or public service provision. Internal migration continues, albeit at a slower pace. Gaps in territorial planning legislation and administrative failures in the issuance of construction permits have made it difficult to obtain an appropriate construction permit, even when occupiers have legal title to the land. State authorities have largely failed to prevent new illegal occupation of land and illegal construction, and it is estimated that up to one-third of all buildings in Albania are illegal due to the occupier's lack of clear title and/or appropriate construction permit. This review of immovable property rights in Albania draws primarily upon this definition, which takes into account the popular legitimacy of state institutions and respect for the law among citizens and government institutions the softer aspects of governance that are essential to understanding how policies are made and implemented in practice and how public resources are used.
  • Publication
    Regulatory Capacity Review: East African Community
    (Washington, DC, 2011) International Finance Corporation
    The regulatory capacity review of the East African Community (EAC) focuses on the capacities of the EAC institutional framework to develop, implement, and sustain the efficient, transparent, and market-based regulatory system that is needed to achieve the economic benefits of the EAC common market. This report argues that the EAC institutions will be successful in implementing the common market only if they safeguard the quality of regulatory practices. This is a highly pragmatic and operational agenda. Quality principles can be applied only if they are defined and institutionalized into the machinery of policy making. The idea is that, just as fiscal management can increase social welfare by better allocating resources, so can regulatory governance.