Other ESW Reports
241 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
COVID-19 in Solomon Islands - Economic and Social Impacts: Insights from the January-February 2022 Round of High Frequency Phone Surveys
(Washington, DC, 2022-07)This report focuses on the socio-economic impacts of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Solomon Islands. The fourth round of the high frequency phone survey (HFPS) interviewed 2,671 households in January-February 2022 on the socio-economic impacts of Coronavirus (COVID-19), including employment and income, community trust and security and COVID-19 vaccination. The January-February 2022 round occurred at the onset of the first wave of COVID-19. -
Publication
Diálogos Territoriales de Futuro
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-06-14)Este documento busca informar el proceso de descentralización de las políticas de fomento productivo en Chile, para ayudar a crear consensos y generar una hoja de ruta. Para ello, se llevaron a cabo los Diálogos Territoriales del Futuro en las 16 regiones de noviembre 2021 a enero 2022. Estos talleres convocaron a más de 200 representantes del Ministerio de Economía, Fomento y Turismo, servicios públicos, y los principales actores del desarrollo económico regional para discutir los desafíos de la descentralización de las políticas de fomento productivo y proponer soluciones, con el fin de desarrollar una hoja de ruta que cree consenso e impulse la descentralización en Chile. Los Diálogos Territoriales del Futuro, que constituyen el primer paso de un largo camino, fueron muy bien recibidos por todos los participantes, especialmente en las regiones, ayudando a generar confianzas entre los diferentes stakeholders y planteando los desafíos y dudas sobre el proceso. -
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Ecological Compensation in China: Trends and Opportunities for Incentive-Based Policies Towards a Greener China
(Washington, DC, 2022-02-11)China is a global leader in the use of ecological compensation (“eco-compensation”)—fiscal transfers for environmental and natural resources management. China is one of the most fiscally decentralized countries in the world, with 85 percent of government spending occurring at subnational levels. In this context, fiscal transfers are one of the national government’s most important tools for motivating and aligning environmental actions across levels of government and jurisdictional boundaries. The government has signaled a strong interest in expanding eco-compensation as part of reforms towards a higher quality greener growth model. Drawing on a unique dataset built from records across government, academia, and news media, this report traces the rise of eco-compensation, explores its current use, provides recommendations to strengthen impacts, and distills broad lessons from China for similar policies globally. -
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Using Behavioral Science in Communication Outreach to Increase Female Participation in Natural Resource Management in Mexico
(Washington, DC, 2022-02-06)While a range of public programs in Mexico exist to incentivize communities to conserve and manage forest natural resources, a gender gap persists in the use of these initiatives. The experiment discussed in this report was commissioned by the climate investment funds’ (CIF) evaluation and learning (E and L) initiative to understand how to improve outreach to and encourage women to engage in productive natural resource management (NRM) programs. Following an earlier behavioral diagnostic study, the World Bank and local partners conducted a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to assess the effectiveness of behaviorally informed additional outreach and engagement measures for NRM programs in Mexico. This report summarizes the findings of a field experiment commissioned by the CIF E and L initiative, with additional financing from the forest carbon partnership facility (FCPF). The experiment was designed to help identify promising strategies to improve outreach to women in order to encourage them to engage in productive natural resource management programs. This report presents the methodology used for the intervention and experimental design. It provides an analysis of the results at the locality and individual level. Finally, it provides conclusions and policy recommendations. -
Publication
Saudi Arabia's Digital and Distance Education: Experiences from the COVID-19 Pandemic and Opportunities for Educational Improvement
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-02-03)Faced with the crisis of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in March 2020, Saudi Arabia embarked on a journey to adapt the way in which schooling operated, enabling a continued education for children across the country. This was a unique journey, and one that will have lasting impacts on education in Saudi Arabia. The World Bank studied this journey in detail over the 2020-21 school year, as the pandemic was underway. This report compiles the results of this study and provides a comprehensive review of the experiences of digital and distance education in Saudi Arabia, along with an analysis of opportunities for future educational improvement. The study aimed to answer three main questions. Firstly, how well did Saudi Arabia provide for, and achieve, continued education of kindergarten to grade 12 (K-12) students during the COVID-19 pandemic Secondly, what were the strengths of Saudi Arabia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in K-12 education And finally, what are the opportunities for educational improvement following the digital and distance education experience To answer these questions, a variety of data gathering instruments were designed and implemented by the World Bank team. The data sources included focus groups; surveys of nationally representative groups of school principals, teachers, students, parents, and supervisors; virtual classroom observations; and interviews with key personnel. Analyses of these data informed the conclusions and recommendations presented in this report, which were reviewed by global experts in the fields of education and education technologies. -
Publication
Accelerating Paraguay’s International Integration through Enhanced Trade, Investment and Competition Policies
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-02)This report seeks to inform the policy dialogue on how to accelerate Paraguay’s international economic integration and in turn its medium- and long-term growth prospects. It benchmarks Paraguay’s global integration; analyzes trade, investment and competition policies and the quality of related institutions; and provides recommendations for strengthening them and accelerating the country’s global connection. Chapter 2 benchmarks Paraguay’s trade outcomes along several dimensions, including export diversification, quality upgrading and export survival, and Chapter 3 follows with an analysis of how trade policies and the quality of the institutional framework are affecting trade performance and identifies opportunities for improvements. It also estimates the impact of the MERCOSUR-European Union (EU) Free Trade Agreement on Paraguay. Chapter 4 focuses on FDI patterns and the strengths and shortcomings of the supporting FDI policy framework to help integrate in regional and global value chains. Chapter 5 examines competition challenges in Paraguay’s markets that could be affecting trade and FDI attraction and provides recommendations for strengthening competition policies and institutions. The preparation of this report has benefitted from the analysis of multiple data sources as well as extensive consultations with stakeholders from the private and public sectors. -
Publication
Dealing with Disasters: Analyzing Vanuatu’s Economy and Public Finances Through the Lens of Disaster Resilience
(Washington, DC, 2022-02-01)This report provides a selected analysis of Vanuatu’s economy and public finances, emphasizing the lens of disaster resilience. It draws upon the analysis and tools from two core World Bank diagnostic products, the Country Economic Memorandum (CEM) and Public Expenditure Review (PER) while bringing the depth and breadth of the analysis to scale with country context and key constraints. In terms of the economic analysis, the report first examines the country’s recent economic performance, followed by an analysis of the agriculture sector, labor mobility, and the tourism sector. In terms of public expenditure analysis, the report first discusses overall fiscal trends and prospects, after which the overarching Public Financial Management (PFM) framework is analyzed. The report concludes with an analysis of public spending in the education and health sectors. -
Publication
Assessing Financial Risks from Physical Climate Shocks: A Framework for Scenario Generation
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-02-01)Climate change has become a main concern of ministries of finance, central banks, and financial regulators. In response, a suite of scenarios and tools have been developed tthe potential scale of climate risks and underprice investments in resilience. This is particularly important for emerging markets and developing economies where exposure to physical climate risks is already high and is expected to further increase with climate change. The paper identifies five areas, or risk drivers, that make a material contribution to physical climate risks to the financial sector and that are not consistently included in current scenarios and tools: (1) extreme weather events; (2) uncertainties in climate models; (3) compound scenarios; (4) indirect economic impacts of shocks; and (5) feedback between the real economy and the financial sector. We derive a framework for generating scenarios to assess acute physical climate-related financial risks, which is inspired by the “Realistic Disaster Scenarios” that are used in risk management and supervision in the insurance sector. The framework is illustrated through an application of the EIRIN macroeconomic model. This framework aims to complement recent work by the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to inform ministries of finance, central banks, financial regulators, and financial institutions on climate financial risk assessments, both for micro- and macroprudential risk management, and to incorporate climate risks into wider financial decision making and disclosures.o assess the financial risks from physical climate shocks (for example, hurricanes, droughts, wildfires, flooding). However, those scenarios do not fully capture such shocks, which could lead financial institutions to underestimate. -
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Inclusive Approaches to Disaster Risk Management: A Qualitative Review
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-02)This report presents a qualitative review of inclusive approaches to disaster risk management (DRM)—a part of the first stocktaking exercise that the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) conducts to assess lessons learned and generate knowledge to help mainstream inclusive approaches and strategies across GFDRR activities. The findings are based on a literature review, analysis of portfolio data, and internal consultations with World Bank task team leaders of GFDRR-funded activities. The reviewed literature includes GFDRR project documentation and knowledge products, World Bank operational documents and research findings, and relevant publications from other scholars and organizations. The stocktaking exercise emphasizes gender, disability-inclusive DRM, citizen engagement, and community participation. It will help create a framework for GFDRR engagement on inclusive DRM and inform development of an inclusive DRM work plan for implementation beginning in fiscal year 2022. As such, GFDRR’s work in these areas reflects its commitment to the World Bank Group’s Gender Strategy 2016–2023 (World Bank Group 2015), the Disability Inclusion and Accountability Framework (World Bank 2018), and the Strategic Framework for Mainstreaming Citizen Engagement in World Bank Group Operations. -
Publication
What Do You Want to Be?: Youth Aspirations in the Time of the COVID-19 Crisis - Evidence from Three Sub-Saharan Countries
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-02-01)Understanding the aspirations and goals of the youth is essential to developing effective employment policies. Policies should be designed to allow educational and professional aspirations of young people to align with pathways to achieving them. The data collected is nationally representative and age distribution is similar across countries. Recent surveys on youth or sub-populations of youth have included questions to capture career aspirations and life goals in the time of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. Incorporating the youth aspirations and employment module for High Frequency Phone Surveys (HFPS) into multi-topic household surveys has several advantages. In conclusion, measuring youth aspirations helps shed light on the possible employment outcomes that can be observed in adulthood and play a role in breaking poverty circles, which is highly relevant for public policy.