Other ESW Reports

271 items available

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

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  • Publication
    Data Diagnostic for Kerala - Spotlight on Resilience: Action plan based on a rapid diagnostic of data governance in the State of Kerala
    (Washington, D.C., 2023-10-17) World Bank
    The Government of Kerala (GoK) is committed to using data-driven tools and services for resilience and has embarked upon several innovative data programs that address known gaps in the resilience related service delivery architecture and the data ecosystem. The World Bank, through the ongoing Additional Financing for Resilient Kerala Program (P177980) is supporting the GoK in its efforts to use data effectively for resilience towards future disasters. At the invitation of the GoK, a World Bank team conducted a rapid diagnostic of the state of data governance in Kerala. The diagnostic aims to support the GoK in combining data initiatives related to climate change and disaster risk management into an integrated ecosystem of technology products and processes, as well as strengthen institutional mandates by enhancing data governance policies and creating incentives for data sharing. The findings of the rapid diagnostic suggest that a vibrant, innovative, and entrepreneurial data ecosystem for resilience exists within the GoK. The government and its partner agencies have developed and deployed several sophisticated resilience-related, data-driven tools, applications, and platforms. GoK however is unable to derive the full extent of benefits from these applications as most of these initiatives are not underpinned by a common set of standards, methods, and policies, leading to suboptimal citizen user experience and effectiveness. The data diagnostic of the data ecosystem of the State provides global and national benchmarking, identifies gaps and opportunity areas, and recommends five strategic action steps and a number of tactical action steps that GoK can take to strengthen data governance and demonstrate the value of data-driven initiatives. The diagnostic was carried out through secondary research and semi-structured interviews. The diagnostic team thanks the wide range of GoK stakeholders who readily agreed to be interviewed for the study, in particular the Kerala State IT Mission (KSITM) who was the main counterpart in developing the diagnostic.
  • Publication
    India - Jharkhand : Addressing the Challenges of Inclusive Development
    (Washington, DC, 2007-03) World Bank
    This study on Jharkhand in India addresses the challenges faced by that new state of India (founded in November 2000) to surmount adverse initial conditions of low average income, very high incidence of poverty, and little social development. In addition, initial health and education indicators in Jharkhand were also markedly unfavorable in comparison to both the all-India average and the major Indian states. The paper points out that in order to put its fiscal house in order, the state needs to introduce reforms for improving resource mobilization, increasing cost effectiveness of expenditure and rationalizing the budgetary processes. Improvement of infrastructure is critically important, and once this has occurred, this will lead to favorable pro-poor changes in the labor market as well. Two opposite views of the development debate are represented by the different degrees of importance given to mining and agriculture. One view contends that the development of the mining sector can usher in a new decade of development in Jharkhand. The second view is that the potential risks associated with the mining sector are high and that agriculture has shown great potential through impressive growth in recent years contributing significantly to poverty reduction and human resource development. Given the strengths and weaknesses of the two options, the present study suggests a middle path, aiming at an inter-temporal balance between the two strategies. The paper stresses that social inclusion and effective citizenship for all are desirable outcomes everywhere, especially in Jharkhand with its sharp social and regional divide. It concludes that political commitment is needed to "make development happen" in the shortest possible time.
  • Publication
    India - Maharashtra : Reorienting Government to Facilitate Growth and Reduce Poverty, Volume 1. Executive Summary and Main Report
    (Washington, DC, 2002-10-31) World Bank
    Maharashtra's leadership position in India is under threat. The State is facing several bottlenecks to development: the private sector is no longer embracing Maharashtra and the public sector banks are increasingly reluctant to assist Maharashtra in its off-budget endeavors. Thus, the status quo is not an option. Regaining its leadership position is well within Maharashtra's reach. Among its many strengths are: the large pool of literate and skilled labor force, a well-developed financial system, a talented bureaucracy, and willingness to break with the ways of the past. If the State can successfully implement its reform agenda, it can quickly rebound and be back on the path of growth and prosperity. The lessons of the past decade suggest two guiding principles: First, the Government needs to articulate the message that its reforms are not to hurt, but to help the farmers. If reforms are to succeed, they have to be pro-farmer and pro-poor. Maharashtra's fiscal stress, be it due to power and irrigation subsidies or due to the losses in cotton and sugar interventions, has a close connection with the rural sector. However, as analyzed in Chapter 4, the current rural interventions are imposing a huge and unsustainable fiscal cost on the state, and more importantly, the bulk of the benefits are accruing to the rural rich. the challenge for the government, therefore, is to provide more efficient, equitable, and sustainable assistance to the rural poor. Second, the government's reform program needs to be designed and implemented with a medium- to long-term perspective. Piecemeal, short-term reforms can only bring short-term gains. The Government of Maharashtra faces a simple choice: to try to succeed in a difficult reform endeavor, or, since the policies of the past no longer work, to give up without trying and condemn itself to developmental and fiscal failure. Through its 2002-03 Budget Speech, the Government has indicated that it has chosen the former path. The quicker it moves along it, the greater the chances of success.
  • Publication
    India - Maharashtra : Reorienting Government to Facilitate Growth and Reduce Poverty, Volume 2. Statistical Appendix, Other Annexes, and Workshop Programs
    (Washington, DC, 2002-10-31) World Bank
    Maharashtra's leadership position in India is under threat. The State is facing several bottlenecks to development: the private sector is no longer embracing Maharashtra and the public sector banks are increasingly reluctant to assist Maharashtra in its off-budget endeavors. Thus, the status quo is not an option. Regaining its leadership position is well within Maharashtra's reach. Among its many strengths are: the large pool of literate and skilled labor force, a well-developed financial system, a talented bureaucracy, and willingness to break with the ways of the past. If the State can successfully implement its reform agenda, it can quickly rebound and be back on the path of growth and prosperity. The lessons of the past decade suggest two guiding principles: First, the Government needs to articulate the message that its reforms are not to hurt, but to help the farmers. If reforms are to succeed, they have to be pro-farmer and pro-poor. Maharashtra's fiscal stress, be it due to power and irrigation subsidies or due to the losses in cotton and sugar interventions, has a close connection with the rural sector. However, as analyzed in Chapter 4, the current rural interventions are imposing a huge and unsustainable fiscal cost on the state, and more importantly, the bulk of the benefits are accruing to the rural rich. the challenge for the government, therefore, is to provide more efficient, equitable, and sustainable assistance to the rural poor. Second, the government's reform program needs to be designed and implemented with a medium- to long-term perspective. Piecemeal, short-term reforms can only bring short-term gains. The Government of Maharashtra faces a simple choice: to try to succeed in a difficult reform endeavor, or, since the policies of the past no longer work, to give up without trying and condemn itself to developmental and fiscal failure. Through its 2002-03 Budget Speech, the Government has indicated that it has chosen the former path. The quicker it moves along it, the greater the chances of success.
  • Publication
    India - Karnataka : Financing Education in the Context of Economic Restructuring
    (Washington, DC, 2002-06-13) World Bank
    The study addresses four major concerns within the Bank's Economic Restructuring Program in Karnataka: 1) identifying the priority issues facing the education sector; 2) indicating possible areas for expenditure reform, to improve the efficiency, and equity of public spending in education; 3) identifying measures to strengthen the effectiveness of public expenditure; and, 4) assessing the resource requirements for school education. The report reviews achievements, and educational trends in the nineties, looking at the factors shaping Karnataka's education development, to then examine public expenditures on education, and the efficiency of public spending. Improvements in the effectiveness of public expenditures in education are proposed, namely in the input utilization of teachers, and non-teachers; in management strengthening of the private sector; and, decentralization in the education system. To attain the elementary, and secondary education goals, considerable financial allocations will be required, where the volume of additional requirements depends critically on the strategies adopted by the Government of Karnataka (GOK), particularly as these affect the expenditures on teachers. The analyses show that if the GOK adopts fiscally sustainable strategies in school education, provided fiscal reforms are successful, financing requirements for the educational system expansion of higher quality, could be met, mainly from its own resources, and private sector mobilization, as well as from the adoption of cost-reducing strategies to narrow the financing gap.
  • Publication
    India - Karnataka : Secondary Education and the New Agenda for Economic Growth
    (Washington, DC, 2002-06-13) World Bank
    The report addresses three major concerns of policy makers in Karnataka, on which there is little prior information, or research, namely whether the expansion in student places at the secondary, and higher secondary levels, is justified on economic grounds; how do secondary school drop-outs from disadvantaged, or poor backgrounds perform in the labor market, and in continuing into higher education: is it worse than students from more advantaged backgrounds?; and, is vocational training a desirable alternative to general higher education, in terms of improving labor market performance? State specific data on employment, unemployment, and earnings is used form the National Sample Survey 1993/94, and from a tracer study conducted in 2001. This study provides more recent data on the labor market performance of new entrants with secondary education, and the patterns of transition into higher education: the transition rate is very high - some two thirds of lower secondary students, and 87 percent of higher secondary students, continued further studies. Nonetheless, an analysis of the growth in aggregate employment, shows that employment in the "organized" sector (mostly recruiting educated workers) has been slow, mainly because of the slowdown in public sector recruitment. If these trends continue, and are not counterbalanced by more rapid growth in employment of educated workers in the "unorganized" sector, further expansion of secondary education is likely to lead to an increase in the level of unemployment among the educated youth. Findings reveal however, that expansion of vocational training as currently configured in Karnataka, is not desirable, since it is not responsive to the changing labor market, and the State should explore new approaches to upgrading skills in both secondary, and elementary education.
  • Publication
    India's Transport Sector : The Challenges Ahead, Volume 1. Main Report
    (Washington, DC, 2002-05-10) World Bank
    India's transport system--especially surface transport--is seriously deficient, and its services are highly inefficient by international standards. The economic losses from congestion and poor roads are estimated at 120 to 300 billion rupees a year. This report takes a critical assessment of the key policy and institutional issues that continue to contribute to the poor performance of the transport sector in India. After an introduction, Chapter 2 provides an overview of rapid demand change and poor supply response, and the resulting adverse impacts on the Indian economy and society. Chapter 3 examines the causes of poor supply response by focusing on four major problems: unclear responsibilities, inadequate resource mobilization, poor asset management, and inadequate imposition of accountability. Chapter 4 reviews recent reforms and lessons learned. Chapter 5 proposes short to medium term actions for each of the main transport subsectors. Three factors make it particularly opportune time for India to expedite transport reform: 1) Initial reform momentum has been built up. 2) There is a growing consensus within India that transport should be managed as an economic sector. 3) There are many successful models for transport reform from around the world. The resistance to reform should be overcome considering the high cost of slow or inadequate action to the Indian economy and society.
  • Publication
    India's Transport Sector : The Challenges Ahead, Volume 2. Background papers
    (Washington, DC, 2002-05-10) World Bank
    India's transport system--especially surface transport--is seriously deficient, and its services are highly inefficient by international standards. The economic losses from congestion and poor roads are estimated at 120 to 300 billion rupees a year. This report takes a critical assessment of the key policy and institutional issues that continue to contribute to the poor performance of the transport sector in India. After an introduction, Chapter 2 provides an overview of rapid demand change and poor supply response, and the resulting adverse impacts on the Indian economy and society. Chapter 3 examines the causes of poor supply response by focusing on four major problems: unclear responsibilities, inadequate resource mobilization, poor asset management, and inadequate imposition of accountability. Chapter 4 reviews recent reforms and lessons learned. Chapter 5 proposes short to medium term actions for each of the main transport subsectors. Three factors make it particularly opportune time for India to expedite transport reform: 1) Initial reform momentum has been built up. 2) There is a growing consensus within India that transport should be managed as an economic sector. 3) There are many successful models for transport reform from around the world. The resistance to reform should be overcome considering the high cost of slow or inadequate action to the Indian economy and society.
  • Publication
    Poverty in India : The Challenge of Uttar Pradesh
    (Washington, DC, 2002-05-08) World Bank
    The report analyzes poverty incidence in India and in particular, in Uttar Pradesh (UP), and defines its poverty levels, trends, and vulnerability. While UP once appeared positioned to be the pace-setter for India's economic, and social development in light of its rich potential in human, and natural resources, economic growth faltered in the 1990s. UP fell behind India's better performing states, and, despite a recent acceleration in growth suggesting the state's performance has been arrested, problems still remain. The report documents poverty along a number of dimensions, i.e., material and human deprivation, where poverty, if measured in terms of material deprivation, is high, and progress at reducing it, has been uneven over the past two decades. Statistics regarding human deprivation, reveal averages, e.g., in literacy well below the all-India average, likewise in female literacy, while mortality rates indicate a much higher ratio than in the country as a whole. Chapter 2 reviews the causes of poverty, stipulating poverty is caused by a scarcity of private assets, where ineffective social programs prevail. Governance, and the policy challenges are examined in Chapter 3, addressing the need to transform UP's public sector, through administrative and civil services reforms to reduce fragmentation, with complementary reforms at the sector levels to improve regulation. To achieve economic growth, Chapter 4 provides recommendations that include improvements in the investment climate, accelerated growth in rural areas, and corrections in gender bias, while Chapter 5 stresses on improving the quality, and access to social services, and safety nets.
  • Publication
    India - Improving Household Food and Nutrition Security : Achievements and the Challenges Ahead, Volume 2. Annexes
    (Washington, DC, 2001-06-25) World Bank
    This report focuses on the performance of, and future challenges for, the Government of India's primary "direct food and nutrition safety nets" or food-based transfer programs designed to alleviate short-term food and nutrition insecurity and improve caring behavior within households. This study focuses on the public food distribution system, the government's buffer stocking operations for foodgrain price stabilization, food for work programs, the mid-day meals program, and the integrated child development support services program. A common denominator of this package of interventions is that they all provide direct food assistance to households to mitigate chronic and/or temporary shortfalls in household food consumption. These programs merit special attention as they form one of the key pillars of the government's food and nutrition security strategy. While there is general agreement that measures that promote economic growth and the development of a strong human resource base would have a stronger and more permanent impact on household food and nutrition security, these food-baed transfer programs nontheless play a critical role in enabling the poor and vulnerable households to alleviate the gap not only in short-term deficiencies in food consumption due to inadequate incomes, but also to ease the constraints to the use of selected health and related nutrition services essential to achieving and maintaining long-term nutritional well-being.