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Publication
Diaspora for Development in Africa
(World Bank, 2011-04-26)The diaspora of developing countries can be a potent force for development for their countries of origin, through remittances, but also, importantly, through promotion of trade, investments, research, innovation, and knowledge and technology transfers. This book brings relevant experience from both developed and developing countries to bear on issues confronting today's governments in linking with their diaspora. The chapters present different approaches used by countries that have tried to maximize the possible gains from migration by engaging more comprehensively with different diaspora groups and individuals. Some African countries are pursuing policies to develop links with Africans abroad, either to encourage them to return or to use their skills, knowledge, or financial capital to foster African development. The book discusses concrete examples of diaspora initiatives that are being implemented in Africa. There are comprehensive reviews on how the diaspora can promote trade and investment linkages. Some developing countries are using dual citizenship to deepen ties with their diaspora. The book directly addresses the issues of remittances-linked financial instruments, investments by the diaspora, diaspora bonds, contributions of skilled and unskilled diaspora in transferring knowledge, analytical research on return migration, and concrete circular migration experiences. There is a need to have a better understanding of these initiatives and to see whether they can be scaled up or replicated in other countries worldwide. -
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Intensifying the Fight Against Malaria : The World Bank's Booster Program for Malaria Control in Africa
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2009)This document describes the purpose and context of the Booster Program, its first three years of operation and the proposed design of phase two of the program. Phase two seeks to build on the successes of and lessons learned from phase one and to enable the World Bank to play its expected role in scaling up and sustaining malaria control interventions to reach the new ambitious but achievable global goal set by the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership, of eliminating malaria as a major public health problem in Africa by 2015. The Bank has subscribed fully to this agenda, as illustrated by statements made by senior management in several public forums. -
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Namibia: Country Brief
(World Bank, 2009)Namibia is a large country in Southern Africa that borders the South Atlantic Ocean, between Angola to the north and South Africa to the south. With a surface area of 824,290 square kilometers, it is similar in size to Mozambique and about half the size of the U.S. state of Alaska. Namibia has a small population of approximately 2.1 million people. It is also one of the least densely populated countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, with an average density of approximately 2.5 people per square kilometer, compared to 34 people per square kilometer for the region as a whole. Namibia was the last colonized country in Sub-Saharan Africa to become independent. After nearly 70 years of South African rule, Namibia gained its independence on March 21, 1990. Until 1990, Namibia's official languages were German, Afrikaans, and English. Following independence, English became the official language, although it is the first language of only a very small percentage of Namibians. Oshiwambo dialects are the mother tongue of approximately half of the population. Namibia, a lower-middle-income country, has one of the highest levels of per capita income in Sub-Saharan Africa. Namibia is one of very few countries in Sub-Saharan Africa that maintains a social safety net for the elderly, the disabled, orphans and vulnerable children, and war veterans. It also has a social security act that provides for maternity leave, sick leave, and medical benefits. Namibia has one of the most productive fishing grounds in the world. The fishing industry is an important source of foreign exchange and a significant employer. The tourism industry in Namibia is similar in size to that in Botswana and is the country's third-largest foreign exchange earner. Namibia is one of the largest producers of gem quality diamonds in the world. It is estimated that 98 percent of its mined diamonds are gem quality. In 2006, almost half of total production was recovered from offshore sources. Namibia is the driest country in Sub-Saharan Africa, with deserts occupying much of the country. It has no perennial rivers or any other permanent water bodies. Due to the low and erratic rainfall and scarce ground and surface water, less than five percent of the country is arable, including through irrigation. Namibia was the first country in the world to incorporate environmental protection into its constitution. Nearly six percent of its land is nationally protected, including large portions of coastal areas within the Namib Desert. -
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Tanzania: Country Brief
(World Bank, 2009)The name Tanzania is a portmanteau of Tanganyika, the mainland, and Zanzibar, the nearby archipelago in the Indian Ocean. The two united to become the United Republic of Tanzania in 1964. With a surface area of 947,300 square kilometers, Tanzania is comparable in size to Nigeria and is slightly more than twice the size of the U.S. state of California. Tanzania's population of approximately 40.4 million (as of 2007) is the second largest in East Africa, after Ethiopia's. Dar es Salaam, the most populous city, contains approximately 2.7 million people and accounts for most commercial activity. Swahili (or Kiswahili) and English are the two official languages of Tanzania. A large number of local languages are also spoken. In Zanzibar, Arabic is commonly used. Agriculture remains the mainstay of Tanzania's economy, accounting for one-quarter of gross domestic product (GDP) and approximately 80 percent of employment. Tanzania is endowed with mineral and natural resources, including gold, diamonds, and several other precious and semiprecious stones. The blue gemstone tanzanite is found only in Tanzania. Tanzania accounted for almost two percent of world gold production as of 2006. Tanzania has a long history of hosting refugee's fleeing civil wars in nearby countries. As of January 2008, there were more than 380,000 refugees living in Tanzania, predominantly from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Tanzania is an up-market tourism destination. The country is endowed with a variety of tourism assets, including seven United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) world heritage sites and numerous wildlife parks, beach resorts, coral reefs, and spectacular scenic mountain views. -
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Breaking Into New Markets
(World Bank, 2009)This book takes a fresh look at export diversification. It concludes that much of the recent literature, though novel, has focused excessively on simply adding new products to export portfolios. One branch of these studies centers on the 'discovery' of exports, and it argues that the threat of entry (imitation) leads to an underinvestment in bringing new products to the global market. Another analytical branch focuses on changing the contents of an export portfolio to mirror the exports of countries with higher incomes on the grounds that these lead to higher productivity. Both strands implicitly point to the need for careful yet active government policies. While such policies are important, this book argues for a more comprehensive view of diversification and hence a more comprehensive trade policy strategy-one that takes into account improving the quality of existing exports, breaking into new geographic markets, and increasing services exports. This publication has been tailored to policy makers, their staffs, and the international development community at large. It is a collection of short articles that summarize major issues and policies on particular topics. Many of the chapters are digests of more formal studies but are presented here with a minimum of underlying econometric and theoretical detail of less interest to policy makers. As the World Bank increases its efforts on 'aid for trade,' Staff are working with countries to help diversify their exports. Along with other development partners, the Bank is providing enhanced assistance to improve competitiveness, facilitate trade, improve trade-related services, and exploit regional and multilateral initiatives to open markets for developing countries. This book makes a substantial contribution to the efforts of developing countries to use the global economy to spur growth and reduce poverty. -
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Closing the Coverage Gap : The Role of Social Pensions and Other Retirement Income Transfers
(World Bank, 2009)The book has four specific objectives: (a) to discuss the role of retirement income transfers in the context of a strategy for expanding old- age income security and preventing poverty among the elderly; (b) to take stock of international experience with the design and implementation of these programs; (c) to identify key policy issues that need to receive attention during the design and implementation phases; and (d) to offer some preliminary policy recommendations and propose next steps. The chapter one discusses the rationale for retirement income transfers. The main justifications are the limited coverage of the mandatory pension systems (chapter two) and the risk of poverty during old age (chapter three). Chapter four then examines the rights, based approach to expansion of social security coverage based on the conventions and recommendations of the International Labor Organization (ILO). The middle part of the book deals with international experience. Chapters five, six, and seven reviews selected programs in low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries, respectively, and chapters eight and nine discuss in greater depth the cases of Japan and the Republic of Korea. The five concluding chapters are concerned with policy issues as related to design. Chapter ten presents a typology of retirement income transfers and analyzes the potential economic impacts of the programs. Chapter eleven deals with financing mechanisms and the problem of allocative efficiency, given limited resources. Chapter twelve addresses two key issues related to institutional arrangements and targeting systems: Should countries consider separate programs to target the elderly poor instead of using the general social assistance system to target all poor? And, how can current proxy means-test systems be adapted to target the elderly poor? Chapter thirteen explores in more detail the links between social pensions and matching contributions in the context of a general strategy for expanding coverage. Finally, chapter fourteen provides guidelines for the design of the administrative systems needed to operationalize the various programs. The remainder of this overview summarizes the main messages from the subsequent chapters and outlines an agenda for future research and policy analysis. For clarity, it starts by presenting some definitions pertinent to the retirement income transfers discussed in the book. -
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Equality for Women : Where Do We Stand on Millennium Development Goal 3?
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2008)There is compelling evidence of the importance of gender equality for poverty reduction and sustainable growth. So it should come as no surprise that most development actors-international agencies, bilateral donors, and most developing countries, have an official policy for promoting gender equality. Millennium Development Goal 3 (MDG3) on gender equality and women's empowerment is shared global commitment. With only seven years remaining until the end date for the MDGs, it is an opportune time to take stock of where the world stands in terms of progress toward gender equality. This volume documents trends both on the official MDG3 indicators and on an expanded set of indicators that provide a more complete measure of gender equality, especially in the area of women's economic empowerment. The message that emerges is both hopeful and sobering: progress toward equality in capabilities has been considerable, but progress toward equality of opportunities for women's economic livelihoods leaves much to be desired. Beyond tracking trends toward gender equality, the volume reviews different measures of gender equality and estimates the financial resources required to achieve this objective. While necessarily imprecise, such estimates can provide a rough guide as to whether the level of effort devoted by international donors and developing countries is adequate in the area of women's economic empowerment. -
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Economic Implications of Chronic Illness and Disability : In Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2008)This report aims to fill in the knowledge gap in this field by analyzing cross-country data on basic indicators, and by carrying out more detailed empirical analysis on causal relationships of interest, including the impact of disability on employment, wages, poverty, and children's school enrollments-focusing on four transition countries with household survey data sets that allow more elaborate econometric analyses. This report argues that it is timely to bring the economic costs of disability to the forefront of development policy because of the large impact poor health status and disabilities have on employment, poverty, children's schooling, and time spent in caring for disabled individuals, especially by adult females (which in turn inhibits higher female labor force participation prospectus). In recent years, there has been some recognition of the need to discuss disability issues in strategy documents such as poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs) and country assistance strategies (CASs). But in the absence of basic empirical evidence on the living conditions and behavior of disabled individuals, it is a challenge to formulate concrete steps to tackle this particular economic development problem. -
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Globalization for Development : Trade, Finance, Aid, Migration, and Policy, Revised Edition
(Washington, DC : World Bank and Palgrave Macmillan, 2007)Globalization has been taking place for centuries, moving from the colonization of the inhabited parts of the world to the appearance of nations, from conquests to independent countries, from sailboats and caravans to steamboats, truck fleets and cargo planes, from trade in a few commodities to global production and distribution networks and to the present explosion of international flows of services, capital, and information. This book also helps to shatter a false dichotomy that holds that policies that favor the poor cannot be pro-market. There is an enormous set of pro-poor and pro-market policies that allow for more equal market competition among and within countries, and that ask that policy take account of externalities as much as possible. The sheer size of today's global economy is a testament to the speed of change: in 2005, world economic output total US$35 trillion an amount likely to double by 2030, assuming modest continued growth. In this book the authors provide a comprehensive introduction to key aspects of globalization trade, finance, aid, and migration, and their complex linkages with poverty and development. This book also helps to shatter a false dichotomy that holds that policies that favor the poor cannot be pro-market. There is an enormous set of pro-poor and pro-market policies that allow for more equal market competition among and within countries, and that ask that policy take account of externalities as much as possible. -
Publication
Early Child Development, From Measurement to Action : A priority for Growth and Equity
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007)The World Bank recently hosted a symposium on the priority of early child development (ECD) for economic growth and equity. The participants urged application of population-based tools and measures to assess the outcomes of children's early years and children's readiness for school. This study is derived from the symposium and is a valuable resource for policy makers, economists, donors, and investors, as well as researchers and practitioners in early child development. It summarizes the current neuroscience on early child development and major longitudinal studies, the rationale and urgency for greater investment, and countries' innovative funding strategies. The report consists of 15 chapters authored by ECD experts and leaders in the field. The chapters are grouped into five main parts relating to the: business imperative and societal benefits of ECD investments; lessons from evaluation of longitudinal ECD interventions; countries' experiences in monitoring ECD interventions; innovative approaches to countries' financing of ECD initiatives; and next steps on the ECD agenda for the next 5 years. A theme highlighted at the symposium and enlarged upon here is the urgent need for evidence- and population-based instruments and measures to monitor, evaluate, and compare ECD interventions over time and across settings.