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Publication Togo’s Agriculture and Infrastructure Public Finance Review (PFR): Leveraging Public Investment to Transform the Rural Economy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-09-23) World BankThis Public Finance Review (PFR) investigates how improved public investment management could contribute to accelerating rural development and structural transformation. Modernizing agriculture and improving rural connectivity are critical to reduce poverty in Togo as 50 percent of those living under the national poverty line depend on agriculture as their primary source of income. However, low-yielding and rainfed production practices trap most farmers in self-subsistence agriculture, while inadequate rural connectivity infrastructure hinders productivity, market access, and opportunities to attract private investment and improve rural households' welfare. This PFR emphasizes a holistic approach to tackling agriculture productivity and rural poverty in Togo by focusing on both agricultural advancements and infrastructure development. First, it assesses the quality of public investment management in Togo, examining the quality of existing systems for selecting, planning, and executing public projects, and identifying key priorities to improve allocative efficiency, strengthen climate resilience and crowd in private investment to maximize impacts. Second, it investigates the effectiveness of public investment in the agriculture sector and how selected reforms could help boost productivity, limit exposure to climate shocks, and bolster food security. Finally, the PFR proposes an in-depth analysis of public investment in the energy and transport sectors, specifically focusing on strategies to improve rural electrification and rural road connectivity.Publication Cameroon Public Finance Review: Collect More, Spend Better to achieve Vision 2035 Goals(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-08-06) World BankDevelopments over the past few years, which include the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent polycrisis, conflict in several of Cameroon’s regions, and fiscal consolidation, have left Cameroon in an extremely tight fiscal situation. The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent polycrisis have had averse fiscal impacts by reducing domestic revenue and requiring additional public expenditure to mitigate crisis impacts. In parallel, conflict in six out of 10 of Cameroon’s regions has hampered economic activity, revenue generation, and public service delivery in the conflict affected regions, while requiring additional expenditure aimed at containing conflicts. Cameroon is also confronted with declining revenue from its natural resource sector, with oil production being on a secular downward trend. Economic growth at an annual average of less than three percent over the past three decades has provided limited momentum to domestic revenue mobilization, while a rapidly growing population is adding pressures to public service delivery.Publication Digital Opportunities in African Businesses(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-05-16) Cruz, MarcioAdoption of digital technologies is widely acknowledged to boost productivity and employment, stimulate investment, and promote growth and development. Africa has already benefited from a rapid diffusion of information and communications technology, characterized by the widespread adoption of mobile phones. However, access to and use of digital technology among firms is uneven in the region, varying not just among countries but also within them. Consequently, African businesses may not be reaping the full potential benefits offered by ongoing improvements in digital infrastructure. Using rich datasets, “Digital Opportunities in African Businesses” offers a new understanding of the region’s incomplete digitalization—namely, shortfalls in the adoption and effective use of digital technology by firms to perform productive tasks. The research presented here also highlights the challenges in addressing incomplete digitalization, finding that the cost of machinery, equipment, and software, as well as the cost of connectivity to the internet, is significantly more expensive in Africa than elsewhere. “Digital Opportunities in African Businesses” outlines ways in which the private sector, with support from policy makers, international institutions, and regulators, can help bring down these costs, stimulating more widespread digitalization of the region’s firms, thereby boosting productivity and, by extension, economic development. This book will be relevant to anyone with an interest in furthering digitalization across Africa.Publication Central African Republic Public Expenditure Review in Key Human Development Sectors(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-02-29) World BankThis Public Expenditure Review (PER) provides an analytical basis to decision makers and stakeholders for the formulation of ambitious yet fiscally responsible interventions to improve human capital outcomes in CAR. The PER examines public expenditure trends of the education, health, and SP sectors with a focus on adequacy,efficiency, and equity of expenditures as well as human resource management (HRM). The primary objective is to provide analytical insights for government policy development and prioritization strategy as it seeks to achievea resilient recovery, rebuild its education and health sectors, and establish a strong SP system that will help the poorest households invest and protect their own human capital. The PER can also serve as a useful source of knowledge and information to development partners seeking to deepen the impact of their support to thehuman capital development sectors. The recommendations put forth by the PER are those identified as fiscally sustainable and most important for rebuilding and strengthening human capital development sectors, including a focus on future human resource (HR) recruitment needed in the education and health sectors.Publication MIGA Annual Report 2023(Washington, DC, 2023-10-17) Multilateral Investment Guarantee AgencyCelebrating thirty-five years since its founding, in FY23 MIGA issued a record 6.4 billion in new guarantees across forty projects. Through these projects, the Agency remained focused on encouraging private investors to help host governments manage and mitigate political risks. In FY23, as it did during the COVID-19 pandemic, MIGA demonstrated its agility to respond to crisis, employing multiple products during the year to assist the embattled people of Ukraine following Russia’s invasion. An institution of the World Bank Group, MIGA is committed to strong development impact and supporting projects that are economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable. MIGA helps investors mitigate the risks of restrictions on currency conversion and transfer, breach of contract by governments, expropriation, and war and civil disturbance. It also offers trade finance guarantees, as well as credit enhancement on obligations of sovereigns, sub-sovereigns, state-owned enterprises, and regional development banks.Publication Republic of Congo Country Climate and Development Report - Diversifying Congo's Economy: Making the Most of Climate Change(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-10-09) World Bank GroupThe Republic of Congo (RoC) CCDR is a new World Bank core diagnostic report that integrate climate change and development considerations. It is intended to help the country prioritize the most impactful actions that can boost adaptation and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while delivering on broader development goals. The CCDR builds on data and rigorous research and identify main pathways to reduce climate vulnerabilities and GHG emissions, including the costs and challenges as well as benefits and opportunities from doing so. The report highlights that RoC could reduce poverty in rural areas by 40% and in urban areas by 20% by 2050 by implementing more ambitious reforms to promote economic diversification and climate resilience. It also concludes that business as usual is not an option. Economic losses could reach up to 17% of GDP by 2050 if reforms to diversify the economy and attract more climate investments are not taken. Climate impacts could also increase total health costs from $92 million in 2010 to $260 million by 2050. The report identifies four priorities to promote sustainable growth in the country: (i) stronger and greener infrastructure and services in electricity, transport, water, and sanitation can deliver transformative results; (ii) More climate-ready education, health systems and social services can save lives and bring critical resources to the poorest; (iii) More investments in natural capital including climate smart agriculture and greater forest management along will help create jobs while reducing carbon emissions; (iv) better climate governance to leverage carbon markets. The forest contributes to US$260 million in timber exports and store over 44 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions. Protecting and valorizing the forest is critical to turn the country’s natural capital into wealth. The report emphasizes that the private sector has a critical role to play in mobilizing financing for an ambitious set of reforms and investments in the context of tight fiscal space. This will require raising awareness on risks and opportunities from climate change, and innovative solutions and financial sector reforms.Publication Unlocking the Potential of Women and Adolescent Girls in Madagascar - Challenges and Opportunities in Increasing Women’s and Girls’ Economic Empowerment: Cahier 3(Washington, DC, 2023-10-04) World BankThis thematic note is part of a broader mixed-method study on gender inequalities in Madagascar, which intends to illustrate the key gender gaps in the country and shed light on the unique challenges that young Malagasy women face in their educational, professional, and family trajectories. Due to the persistence of financial, social, and institutional barriers, Malagasy women and girls encounter significant disadvantages across all dimensions of well-being and are unable to access opportunities in an equal manner with men and boys in the country. They are largely constrained in their ability to accumulate human capital in education and health, and to participate in economic opportunities; and they face severe limitations in agency and decision-making, particularly with respect to family formation. Women and girls also appear to be disproportionally affected by the impacts of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, which further widen preexisting gender gaps and amplify vulnerability to poverty, violence, and discrimination. This thematic note provides in-depth insights into the status of women and girls’ economic opportunities in Madagascar and proposes several strategic lines of action to enhance women’s economic empowerment. This note is accompanied by the overview of all study findings and three thematic notes that present in-depth insights in the following key dimensions: education, health, and agency.Publication World Bank Annual Report 2023: A New Era in Development(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-28) World BankThis annual report, which covers the period from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023, has been prepared by the Executive Directors of both the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA)—collectively known as the World Bank—in accordance with the respective bylaws of the two institutions. Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank Group and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, has submitted this report, together with the accompanying administrative budgets and audited financial statements, to the Board of Governors.Publication Unlocking Blue Carbon Development: Investment Readiness Framework for Governments(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-11) World BankThe purpose of this paper is to provide a practical framework to guide governments in catalyzing and scaling up public and private investment in Blue Carbon as part of their blue economy development. It does this by describing in detail a Blue Carbon Readiness Framework, a step-by-step, well-illustrated guide with simple checklists. Client countries can use the illustrations and checklists to determine their readiness to catalyze and scale up investment in blue carbon credit finance. The Blue Carbon Readiness Framework consists of three pillars: 1. Data and Analytics; 2. Policy and Institutions; 3. Finance.Publication Managing Sovereign Loans: “A Bottom-up Approach" (Guidance Note)(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-07-13) Proite, Andre; Vitorino, MarceloThe objective of this note is to provide guidance for countries on how to manage contractual debt. It describes the steps necessary to manage debt after the loan becomes effective (or even during the negotiation’s final stages) and until the contract is serviced and closed. These steps include identifying the key components of a debt contract that are needed to accurately service the debt, with a focus on recording and monitoring events that impact cash flows. International Finance Institutions (IFIs) offer relatively similar financing products for developing countries, however, contracts may also be specific and may be tailored to meet the cash flows of the debtor. IFI loans have evolved significantly over the last 20 years, from very rigid structures to more flexible options that have choices in terms of currency, type of interest rate, amortization profile, among others. As this flexibility has increased, so too has the complexity for debt recording: meticulous recording and monitoring must capture all events that impact debt cash flows, a prerequisite for quality debt reporting. Evidence shows challenges in relation to debt recording and reporting. The main causes are: (i) poor understanding of loan terms and conditions; (ii) failure to capture the events that affect the outstanding debt and redemption profile; (iii) miscomputation of these events. Many countries have revealed that debt has been serviced based only on creditor invoices, instead of relying on their own checks and controls. Debt systems manuals, when available, may show how to navigate applications but do not describe how debt cash flows should be computed.