Stand alone books
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Publication
Matching Contributions for Pensions : A Review of International Experience
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013)Establishing robust, equitable, and effective social protection is essential to reducing poverty and boosting prosperity at all levels of development. The demographic transition that has already transformed most high-income societies will exert similar and growing pressures on others, reinforcing the role of pensions and savings for old age as a central pillar of social protection systems. One possible solution that has emerged in recent years that offers the potential to overcome this challenge is the provision of contribution matches to provide an immediate and powerful incentive for participation in pension saving systems. Originating in several high-income settings there are now a number of innovations and substantial experience in low-income countries in using this design to stimulate coverage and savings. This experience now provides a rich opportunity for learning, not just from the longer experience of a few high-income countries but also the more meaningful South-South learning across developing countries.This volume, which reviews the experience with matching pension contributions across the range of countries that have used the design, makes an initial, but critically important investment in this learning process. The description and analysis of this experience which is the product of partnership and collaboration across many public and private institutions provide an invaluable early assessment of the design to inform policy makers and practitioners as well as serve as a model for the kind of cooperation that will be required to address this difficult challenge. At the World Bank, we look forward to being part of this learning process of how to best provide old-age security for all. -
Publication
Colombia : The Economic Foundation of Peace
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2003)The book intends to trigger, and support policy debate in Colombia. The first part distills four thematic chapters, responsive to the country's current realities, as well as to the five decades of development partnership with the Bank, spanning the entire development spectrum. First, violence, sustainable peace, and development introduces the reader to the source of violence - armed, and social conflicts, and drug trade prevalent in the country - to form a framework of understanding on the economic, and social costs for building peace, and enable sustainable growth. Second, such growth is examined within the macroeconomic, and fiscal framework, to ensure a healthy financial system, and create a business environment to foster private sector development. Third, such eventual success, drives us through Colombia's traditional socioeconomic progress, though through its recent setbacks as well - economic recession, increased macroeconomic instability, and judicial uncertainty - all eroding potential welfare gains. Fourth, and ultimately, the demand for governance and quality of government reveals the coexisting problems faced by strong and weak governance, and explores a strengthened governance based on selectivity and gradualism in building high quality government. To support this analysis, the second part, provides sector-specific realities, including its fiscal framework, public debt management, financial sector and pension reform. The development agenda calls for a government to reach a higher growth plateau, allowing a chance for sharing in that growth, and making the state an icon of quality.