Stand alone books

498 items available

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http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5993

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Belt and Road Economics: Opportunities and Risks of Transport Corridors

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2019-06-18) World Bank

China proposed the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013 to improve connectivity and cooperation on a transcontinental scale. This study, by a team of World Bank Group economists led by Michele Ruta, analyzes the economics of the initiative. It assesses the connectivity gaps between economies along the initiative’s corridors, examines the costs and economic effects of the infrastructure improvements proposed under the initiative, and identifies complementary policy reforms and institutions that will support welfare maximization and mitigation of risks for participating economies.
Healthy China: Deepening Health Reform in China

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2019-03-28) World Bank ; World Health Organization

The report recommends that China maintain the goal and direction of its healthcare reform, and continue the shift from its current hospital-centric model that rewards volume and sales, to one that is centered on primary care, focused on improving the quality of basic health services, and delivers high-quality, cost-effective health services. With 20 commissioned background studies, more than 30 case studies, visits to 21 provinces in China, the report proposes practical, concrete steps toward a value-based integrated service model of healthcare financing and delivery, including: 1) Creating a new model of people-centered quality integrated health care that strengthens primary care as the core of the health system. This new care model is organized around the health needs of individuals and families and is integrated with higher level care and social services. 2) Continuously improve health care quality, establish an effective coordination mechanism, and actively engage all stakeholders and professional bodies to oversee improvements in quality and performance. 3) Empowering patients with knowledge and understanding of health services, so that there is more trust in the system and patients are actively engaged in their healthcare decisions. 4) Reforming public hospitals, so that they focus on complicated cases and delegate routine care to primary-care providers. 5) Changing incentives for providers, so they are rewarded for good patient health outcomes instead of the number of medical procedures used or drugs sold. 6) Boosting the status of the health workforce, especially primary-care providers, so they are better paid and supported to ensure a competent health workforce aligned with the new delivery system. 7) Allowing qualified private health providers to deliver cost-effective services and compete on a level playing field with the public sector, with the right regulatory oversight, and 8) Prioritizing public investments according to the burden of disease, where people live, and the kind of care people need on a daily basis.
The State of Social Safety Nets 2018

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018-03-14) World Bank

The State of Social Safety Nets 2018 Report examines global trends in the social safety net/social assistance coverage, spending, and program performance based on the World Bank Atlas of Social Protection Indicators of Resilience and Equity (ASPIRE) updated database. The report documents the main social safety net programs that exist globally and their use to alleviate poverty and to build shared prosperity. The 2018 report expands on the 2015 edition, both in administrative and household survey data coverage. A distinct mark of this report is that, for the first time, it tells the story of what happens with SSN/SA programs spending and coverage over time, when the data allow us to do so. This 2018 edition also features two special themes: Social Assistance and Ageing, focusing on the role of old-age social pensions, and Adaptive Social Protection, focusing on what makes SSN systems/programs adaptive to various shocks.
Pathways for Peace: Inclusive Approaches to Preventing Violent Conflict

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018) United Nations ; World Bank

The resurgence of violent conflict in recent years has caused immense human suffering, at enormous social and economic cost. Violent conflicts today have become complex and protracted, involving more non-state groups and regional and international actors, often linked to global challenges from climate change to transnational organized crime. It is increasingly recognized as an obstacle to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. This has given impetus for policy makers at all levels – from local to global – to focus on preventing violent conflict more effectively. Grounded in a shared commitment to this agenda, Pathways for Peace: Inclusive Approaches to Preventing Violent Conflict is a joint United Nations and World Bank study that looks at how development processes can better interact with diplomacy and mediation, security and other tools to prevent conflict from becoming violent. To understand ‘what works,’ it reviews the experience of different countries and institutions to highlight elements that have contributed to peace. Central to these efforts is the need to address grievances around exclusion from access to power, opportunity and security. States hold the primary responsibility for prevention, but to be effective, civil society, the private sector, regional and international organizations must be involved. Enhancing the meaningful participation of women and youth in decision making, as well as long-term policies to address the aspirations of women and young people are fundamental to sustaining peace.
Forcibly Displaced: Toward a Development Approach Supporting Refugees, the Internally Displaced, and Their Hosts

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2017-06) World Bank

The Syrian refugee crisis has galvanized attention to one of the world’s foremost challenges: forced displacement. The total number of refugees and internally displaced persons, now at over 65 million, continues to grow as violent conflict spikes.This report, Forcibly Displaced: Toward a Development Approach Supporting Refugees, the Internally Displaced, and Their Hosts, produced in close partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), attempts to sort fact from fiction to better understand the scope of the challenge and encourage new thinking from a socioeconomic perspective. The report depicts the reality of forced displacement as a developing world crisis with implications for sustainable growth: 95 percent of the displaced live in developing countries and over half are in displacement for more than four years. To help the displaced, the report suggests ways to rebuild their lives with dignity through development support, focusing on their vulnerabilities such as loss of assets and lack of legal rights and opportunities. It also examines how to help host communities that need to manage the sudden arrival of large numbers of displaced people, under pressure to expand services, create jobs and address long-standing development issues. Critical to this response is collective action. As work on a new Global Compact on Responsibility Sharing for Refugees progresses, the report underscores the importance of humanitarian and development communities working together in complementary ways to support countries throughout the crisis―from strengthening resilience and preparedness at the onset to creating lasting solutions.
The Africa Competitiveness Report 2017: Addressing Africa’s Demographic Dividend

(Geneva: World Economic Forum, 2017-05-01) World Economic Forum ; World Bank ; African Development Bank

Without urgent action to address low levels of competitiveness, Africa’s economies will not create enough jobs for the young people entering the job market. If current policies remain unchanged, fewer than one-quarter of the 450 million new jobs needed in Africa in the next 20 years will be created. These are among the key findings of the Africa Competitiveness Report 2017, a biennial publication jointly produced by the World Economic Forum, the African Development Bank, and the World Bank Group. Priorities to meet the changing demographics include policy reform to improve the quality of institutions, infrastructure, skills and adoption of new technology. House construction and better urban planning present opportunities for short-term competitiveness gains. The report finds that the ability of Africa’s economies to generate enough jobs for its young and growing population rests on the successful implementation of urgent structural reforms to boost productivity. Competitiveness is defined as the set of institutions, policies and factors that determine the level of productivity, and hence future prosperity, of a country. The report, which covers North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, comes at a time when growth in most of the region’s economies has been slowing after a decade of sustained growth. Further stagnation is likely in the absence of improvements in the core conditions for competitiveness. Compounding the challenge to Africa’s leaders is a rapidly expanding population.
Global Report on Islamic Finance: Islamic Finance - A Catalyst for Shared Prosperity?

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2017-02-20) World Bank ; Islamic Development Bank Group

Income inequality has increased considerably in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007–08 to the extent that one percent of global population possess almost half of the global assets. Whereas the development community is unanimous to tackle growing inequality and imbalance in the distribution of wealth, there is a difference of opinion as to the approaches to achieve this goal. This report presents a perspective from Islamic finance on how shared prosperity can be enhanced. The theoretical framework for economic development by Islamic economics and finance is based on four fundamental pillars: (i) an institutional framework and public policy oriented to the development objectives of Islam; (ii) prudent governance and accountable leadership; (iii) promotion of the economic and financial system based on risk sharing; and (iv) financial and social inclusion for all, promoting development, growth, and shared prosperity. There is evidence that Islamic finance is experiencing high growth with the banking sector leading the way. Several countries are working seriously towards developing standards, regulation and legal frameworks for the development of Islamic finance. However, there are a number of aspects where policy interventions or improvements in policy effectiveness are needed to develop Islamic finance to promote shared prosperity. Without the enabling environment, Islamic finance may not be able to attain the potential expected of it. With adequate policy interventions and enabling financial infrastructure, Islamic finance could become a catalyst for alleviating poverty and inclusive prosperity. The key findings of the report include a need for sound regulatory framework for Islamic financial institutions due to the obvious differences from the conventional banks, harmonizing of Shariah standards and more discourse related to the underlying mechanism of Islamic financial products. Islamic capital markets both equity and Sukuk (Islamic bonds) are vital for the development of Islamic financial markets. Finally, instruments of Islamic social finance and redistribution could contribute further to enhance the shared prosperity.
Monitoring Global Poverty: Report of the Commission on Global Poverty

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2017) World Bank

In 2013, the World Bank Group announced two goals that would guide its operations worldwide. The first is the eradication of chronic extreme poverty -- bringing the number of extremely poor people, defined as those living on less than 1.25 ppp-adjusted dollars a day, to less than 3% of the world population by 2030. The second is the boosting of shared prosperity, defined as promoting the growth of per capita real income of the poorest 40% of the population in each country. Last year, UN member nations agreed in New York to a set of post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), the first and foremost of which is the eradication of extreme poverty everywhere, in all its forms. Both the language and the spirit of the SDG objective reflect the growing acceptance of the idea that poverty is a multi-dimensional concept that reflects multiple deprivations in various aspects of well-being. That said, there is much less agreement on the best ways in which those deprivations should be measured; and on whether or how information on them should be aggregated. This report advises the Bank on the measurement and monitoring of global poverty on two areas: • What should be the interpretation of the definition of extreme poverty, set in 2015 in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)-adjusted dollars a day per person? • What choices should the World Bank make regarding complementary monetary and non-monetary poverty measures to be tracked and made available to policy-makers? The World Bank plays an important role in shaping the global debate on combatting poverty, and the indicators and data the Bank collates and makes available shape opinion and actual policies in client countries, and, to a certain extent, in all countries. How we answer the above questions can therefore have a major influence on the global economy.
Vietnam 2035: Toward Prosperity, Creativity, Equity, and Democracy

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2016) World Bank ; Ministry of Planning and Investment of Vietnam

The year 2015 marks 70 years since Vietnam’s Declaration of Independence, 40 years since reunification, and just short of 30 years from the launch of Doi Moi reforms, which catapulted the nation from the ranks of the world’s poorest to one of the great development success stories. Critical ingredients of success have been visionary leaders, a sense of shared societal purpose, and a focus on the future. Starting in the late 1980s, these elements were fused with the embrace of markets and the global economy, setting the nation on the path to becoming the middle-income country that it is today, raising tens of millions of people out of poverty. Energized by past success but by no means content, Vietnam now aspires, by the year 2035, to modernity, industrialization, and a higher quality of life – aspirations that stand on three major pillars: economic prosperity, balanced with environmental sustainability; equity and social inclusion; and state capacity and accountability. The Vietnam 2035 report – a joint undertaking by experts from Vietnam and the World Bank – evaluates Vietnam’s possibilities and options in this endeavor.
Integrating Human Rights into Development: Donor Approaches, Experiences and Challenges, Third Ed.

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2016) World Bank ; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

This study, originally published in 2006 and updated in 2011, is being updated in this third edition. The work was originally based on a study commissioned by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Network on Governance (GOVNET), which reviewed the approaches of different donor agencies and their rationales for working on human rights. The third edition reviews the current practice in the field and draws together experiences that form the core of the current evidence around the contribution of human rights to development. It discusses both new opportunities and conceptual and practical challenges to human rights that concern the development partnerships between donors and partner countries, and the workings of the international aid system more broadly. This edition includes recent developments in the area of human rights, aid effectiveness, and sustainable development. Of continued relevance to this publication is the OECD DAC 2007 Action-Oriented Policy Paper, which affirmed unequivocally that human rights are an essential part of development cooperation, noting the increasing convergence of the two areas and the relevance of human rights considerations to aid effectiveness: the 2008 Accra agenda for action and 2011 Busan outcome document both acknowledged the importance of human rights standards and principles. In the context of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the 2010 UN World Summit outcome document confirmed the centrality of human rights to sustainable development that paved the way for the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Finally, in the sphere of business and human rights, the 2013 adoption of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights by the UN Human Rights Council, although of more indirect relevance to donor policies, signaled a rapprochement in terms between the worlds of finance and investment on the one hand and human rights on the other. The links among rights violations, poverty, exclusion, environmental degradation, vulnerability, and conflict in more applied terms have continued to be explored. There is growing recognition of the intrinsic importance of human rights in a range of contexts, as well as their potential instrumental relevance for improved development processes and outcomes and a sustained interest in tools and metrics, including human rights indicators.