Other ESW Reports

242 items available

Permanent URI for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/10986/2209

This includes miscellaneous ESW types and pre-2003 ESW type reports that are subsequently completed and released.

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 48

Voices from Yemen

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-14) World Bank

This report highlights respondents’ lived experiences during Yemen’s conflict as experts of their own experiences. This report aims to present the voices of Yemenis who have now spent eight years living through a civil war, economic crisis, and close to famine. This report is among the few authentically capturing Yemeni voices on a range of day-to-day issues from different governorates across the country. But arguably the small sample size limits ability to generalize findings. However, generalizing findings was not the intention of the report. For each theme, 'Voices from Yemen' presents a multi-stakeholder perspective to mitigate bias towards a single stakeholder group or geographical area. Moreover, the report’s findings are in line with those in quantitative reports, such as ‘Surviving in the Times of War’ or the ‘World Bank Phone Survey’ report on food security. ‘Voices from Yemen’ presents a comprehensive picture of suffering derived from human stories behind the statistics. The conflict has made Yemeni lives unaffordable, uncertain, vulnerable, and often unbearable. The power of people’s speech and the intensity of their stories narrate their grave vulnerabilities and the sense of helplessness and suffering the conflict has caused.
Unlocking Blue Carbon Development: Investment Readiness Framework for Governments

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-11) World Bank

The 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.
The Leaders of the Twin Transition in Asia: Mapping Capabilities through Digital and Green Patents

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-08-17) World Bank

This report examines how technology affects digital and green transitions in 128 cities across 17 Asian countries. It identifies cities that lead, follow, or have the potential to develop green and digital technologies using patent data analysis. Relatedness Density maps are produced for each digital and green technology, indicating the level of potential and the relative position each city has to develop Twin Transition technologies. A complementarity indicator is used to identify potential partner cities that can provide complementary capabilities to a city to develop green or digital technology. The analysis finds that digital and green technologies are not necessarily closely associated with each other, though some technologies can be used for both, such as smart grids. Furthermore, digital capabilities affect the development of both digital and green technologies. Based on the findings, the research suggests cities need to consider the relative strengths of their technologies instead of following a 'one-size-fits-all' approach, and cities need to target partners cities that can offer complementary capabilities to enable the green and digital transitions.
North and Northeastern Development Initiative (NEDI): Boosting Shared Prosperity for the North and Northeastern Counties of Kenya

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-08-10) World Bank

Kenya’s north and northeastern region is a host to 11 percent of the total population scattered across 63 percent of the country’s landmass. The arid and semi-arid region experiences recurrent droughts that create vulnerabilities for the nomadic pastoralist communities, pervasive insecurity, suffers fragility, and has been a host to the largest population of refugees in sub-Saharan Africa over the last three decades. These policy choices contributed to the significant lag in most of the development indicators for this region compared to the rest of the country. The region has huge infrastructure deficits, low literacy rates, and contributes only a modest 4.7 percent to the national gross domestic product. To address the socio-economic disparities and inequality challenges, the Government of Kenya with support from World Bank (WB) launched the North and Northeastern Development Initiative (NEDI) in 2018. The NEDI, the region’s first significant, integrated, and transformative investment, cuts across foundational sectors including energy, water, transport, social protection, displacement, and agriculture.
Towards Better Labor Migration Systems in Northern Central America: Overview of Findings from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-08-01) World Bank

This note aims to close the knowledge gap about the effectiveness and capacity of labor migration sending systems in NCA countries. The report assesses whether NCA countries have the fundamental elements of an effective labor migration sending system, identifies the missing elements, and offers recommendations for strengthening the systems over time. Filling such a knowledge gap is critical to inform policies that maximize the benefits and minimize the costs of economic migration. Programs and policies that help expand legal pathways for regular migration will not only promote mutually beneficial migration, but could be a step, albeit small, towards dissuading individuals from pursuing risky migration patterns. Indeed, evidence from Mexico indicates that investing in legal labor pathways can reduce irregular migration (Clemens and Gough, 2018). In this context, this note summarizes the main findings from three institutional diagnostics of the labor migration sending systems in NCA countries, with a view to deepening the understanding of the supply side of labor flows. To this end, and building on previous World Bank experience globally, a diagnostic tool was developed to identify what steps the NCA governments have taken to recognize and respond to foreign demand for workers. The tool examines if appropriate structures, systems, processes, and resources exist to prepare and deliver adequate labor supply arrangements in the context of bilateral agreements (BLAs) or Temporary Work Agreements (TWAs) with other countries. The diagnostic tool is organized around four main pillars to regulate, facilitate, fortify, and further access of labor migrants to international labor markets.
RWI Phase 3 Report on Regulatory Trends

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-07-25) World Bank

The Regulatory Watch Initiative (RWI) is designed as a supplementary tool to aid national administrations in contemplating, analyzing, and drafting policies, laws, and regulations. It can also provide insight on comparative measures to spur Digital Economy growth by informing decision-makers about gaps, trends, and best practices for developing a fully enabling environment and to support the adoption of digital infrastructure for integrated and balanced economic and social development.
Crisis and Recovery: Learning from COVID-19’s Economic Impacts and Policy Responses in East Asia

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-07-11) World Bank

More than three years after the first COVID-19 case was discovered in the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region, it is time to take stock of the lasting effects—and opportunities—of the pandemic and identify which policies may have helped stem the economic losses suffered by households and firms. To do so, this regional report examines the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on households and firms in six countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. This volume examines: (a) the links between impacts on firms and households, in particular through the employment channel, and (b) governments’ fiscal responses to the COVID crisis, through transfers, subsidies, and taxes. It identifies and explains changes in household well-being by examining the economic effects of the pandemic on labor markets. As the source of employment and wage income, businesses have a direct role in determining jobs and earnings, and, indirectly, welfare, poverty, and inequality. When faced with a shock, firms responded by adjusting employment, reducing wages, increasing prices, and reducing services provided. All of these channels directly affected households’ wellbeing. For this reason, the report focuses on firms in addition to households. Governments responded through various instruments, providing transfers and subsidies and lowering the tax burden to both households and firms.
PPP Project Screening and Analytics Tool (PSAT 2.0) User Guide

(Washington, DC, 2023-06-01) World Bank

Lack of fiscal space and the quest for better efficiency in projects and programs have led to increasing interest in public-private partnerships (PPPs) globally. PPPs are more complex than similar publicly procured projects and require upfront project development expenses that could be significant. Therefore, public entities seek to understand as much as possible about each project before undertaking expensive studies, project structuring, and procurement, which brings to the fore the need for good upstream project selection techniques and methodologies. A review of early-stage PPP screening practices in various countries indicates that a mix of drivers determines PPP project success, often making it difficult for policy makers and practitioners to understand and select projects for further development as PPPs. Complete reliance on quantitative criteria has not worked well, with the result that in the past few years, countries have been opting to combine these with qualitative aspects. Often, screening methodologies have been created based on a country’s policy drivers and areas of focus. Although countries follow different methodologies for screening projects, there are certain common principles used by all. The PPP Project Screening and Analytics Tool (PSAT, or Tool) 2.0 is a Microsoft Excel Visual Basic–based decision-making tool that can be used by countries for the screening and prioritizing of climate resilient PPP projects. The Tool was developed by the Infrastructure Finance, Public-Private Partnerships and Guarantees global practice (IPG) at the World Bank. In 2023 climate change parameters were integrated into the tool and this user manual was updated accordingly. This document is a detailed guide that provides step-by-step instructions on the use of the PSAT 2.0. The User Guide also delves into the mechanics of the PSAT 2.0 and guides the user to customize the Tool to cater to specific requirements.
Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Public Sector Labor Market and Its Implications

(Washington, DC, 2023-05-24) World Bank

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) face the dual and interlinked challenge of lack of jobs and low quality of public services. Labor force participation rates, especially of women, are among the lowest in Europe, and the country faces high and sustained levels of unemployment, especially of the youth. Even within the employed sector there are concerns regarding the quality of jobs, including high levels of informality. The dearth of quality jobs is linked to skills mismatches between the demand and supply of labor, which in turn reflects the relatively low quality of human capital of workers, and poor education and health services. The objective of this report is to examine the “public sector labor market” in BiH and its implications for this twin challenge. The public sector labor market is defined as the employment, compensation, management, and work environment practices of the public sector. These practices influence the employment choices of individuals, such as whether to work and preferences over public sector or private sector employment. They also affect the selection, retention, motivation, and productivity of public sector workers, which in turn impact the ability of the government to effectively deliver its variety of outputs. The report measures these features of the public sector labor market through an original household survey conducted by the World Bank (WB) in 2021-2022 that is representative of the urban areas of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) and the Republika Srpska (RS).
Philippine Jobs Report: Shaping a Better Future for the Filipino Workforce

(Washington, DC, 2023-03-27) World Bank

Shaping a Better Future for the Filipino Workforce aims to inform jobs policy by examining key determinants and outcomes of jobs. Jobs are created when the macroeconomic environment is conducive and policies are predictable to businesses with sustained growth, trades, and investments. At the same time, a large body of literature also shows that economic growth alone is not sufficient for generating jobs. Jobs are created when firms pursue expansion through innovation and competitiveness and demand for more labor input, while workers’ skills and human capital are able to meet the needs of firms. Intrahousehold resource allocation and decisions for labor supply also affect the jobs outcomes. It is not uncommon that workers as self-employed create jobs by initiating their own business. The market clearing process of labor is then affected by labor market institutions, most notably labor market regulations and labor policies and programs. These are key determinants of how easy it is to start a business or to hire a worker, how high labor costs are, and how efficiently firms and workers are matched. Part I looks into the country’s labor market in chronological order, while Part II discusses three major areas of Philippine jobs - labor regulation, international migration, and emerging demands for green and digital jobs.