Other ESW Reports

308 items available

Permanent URI for this collection

https://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 188

The Markets and Competition Policy Assessment Toolkit
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-09) World Bank
The markets and competition policy assessment toolkit (MCPAT) is a guide for understanding how policy can positively shape markets and address market failures that ultimately affect micro- and macroeconomic development issues. The MCPAT aims to support policymakers, competition authorities, and development finance institutions in realizing the advantages of competitive and well-functioning markets by setting the right conditions for firms to improve their economic performance and for markets to allocate resources efficiently. Competitive and well-functioning markets do not just benefit consumers, - they benefit entire economies as they promote productivity, innovation, efficiency, and consumer choice. The goal is not simply to increase the number of firms in a market or to restrict market power but to create an environment where competition can thrive, firms can innovate, and markets can function optimally. The structure of this toolkit follows the steps to conduct an MCPAT analysis in a specific sector or market. Part I provides an overview of key concepts that set the basis for conducting the MCPAT analysis and covers the first step of the MCPAT. Part II focuses on diagnosing market issues. Part III is about how to fix markets.
Global Gas Flaring Tracker Report
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-12-09) World Bank
The Tracker report for 2024 comes as a global sense of urgency is taking hold. At the end of last year, the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) again underscored the importance of transitioning away from unabated oil and gas. At the same time, oil and gas will continue to play a material role in the global energy system until at least 2050. This places the burden of responsibility on operators to ensure that oil and gas are produced as cleanly as possible during the energy transition. It is clear that routine gas flaring also continues to represent a lost opportunity to provide communities around the world with much-needed energy security and a cleaner source of power. This business-as-usual practice of pursuing oil production with little consideration for the potential use of associated gas is not just polluting, it is immensely wasteful. To support countries with the least resources and capacity to address greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas sector, the World Bank has launched the Global Flaring and Methane Reduction (GFMR) Partnership. GFMR builds on the legacy of the Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership and broadens the scope to include providing support for gas flaring and methane emissions reduction along the entire oil and gas value chain.
Global Regulations, Institutional Development, and Market Authorities Perspective Toolkit (GRIDMAP) - Consumer Protection Module
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-12-04) World Bank
The GRIDMAP, Global Regulations, Institutional Development and Market Authorities Perspective Consumer Protection Module, aims to develop consumer trust in markets by providing a toolkit to build fair, secure, and contestable markets that enable all consumers to make informed choices.
Green Competitiveness in Ethiopia: An Overview of How Environmental and Climate Factors Increasingly Shape Ethiopia's Economic Outlook in Selected Value Chains
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-11-12) World Bank
Environmental and climate factors play an increasing role in shaping Ethiopia’s economic competitiveness, and this report aims to provide an overview of these shifts. This novel report is a high-level assessment of how certain factors could affect Ethiopia’s economic competitiveness: (i) supply side impacts of climate change and environmental degradation, and (ii) demand-side changes caused by a growing number of sustainability requirements in key export markets, notably sustainability regulations and decisions by international buyers. Concentrating on four sectors that are both critical to Ethiopia’s economy and exposed to environmental and climate factors - coffee, textiles and garments, cut flowers, and aviation - illustrates these shifts. The objective is to identify cross-cutting trends of how sustainability factors affect Ethiopia’s economic competitiveness, but the sector-specific angle helps identify pressing challenges that policy makers in Ethiopia need to address. Note that the selected sectors are used to illustrate the trends described in this report and do not imply a recommended prioritization. Many other sectors essential to Ethiopia’s green transformation are not discussed. Moreover, although the report acknowledges that social and environmental aspects are deeply intertwined, it does not cover topics such as occupational health and safety, inclusion, living wages, and gender rights. The assessment applies a mixed methods approach by drawing on insights from interviews with experts conducted online and in person in Ethiopia (conducted mainly between November 2023 and April 2024), analysis of trade and economic data, and an extensive literature review. This report underlines the macro criticality of green competitiveness for Ethiopia, embedded in the wider economic and political context.
State-Owned Enterprises (SOES) in Oman: Review of SOE Governance Practices
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-11-08) World Bank
This report is part of a World Bank review of State-owned Enterprise (SOE) governance practices in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries. The review is responding to the scarcity of data about such practices in the MENA region. It initially covers six countries, including: Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, and Tunisia. The objective of the reviews is to develop and disseminate knowledge about SOE governance in the interests of promoting continued SOE reforms in the region. This report provides an overview of the SOE landscape and history in Oman, followed by a review of key dimensions of SOE governance practices. This includes a review of the following dimensions: (i) The legal and regulatory frameworks for SOEs; (ii) State ownership arrangements; (iii) Performance management frameworks; (iv) SOE board structures and functioning; (v) Transparency and disclosure practices; (vi) Procurement policies and practices; and (vii) Climate reporting practices. The framework for the review is based on the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for SOE Corporate Governance and the World Bank’s Integrated SOE Framework (iSOEF).
The Effects of Regulating Platfom-based Work on Employment Outcomes: A Review of the Empirical Evidence
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-31) Alzate, David
This brief is developed as part of a series and provides an overview of the empirical evidence on the impacts of regulatory and worker protection interventions related to digital work platforms. The theoretical and economic rationales for protecting workers against the market failures that surround digital platform work are discussed in Stoterau (2024). Another brief describes the experiences in various countries in adopting labor regulations or legal classifications from the legal standpoint (Hatayama and Swistak 2024). We bring complementary evidence and guidance to policy makers by reviewing the empirical evidence on the effects of introducing regulations.
Gender Assessment of the Gambian Tourism Sector
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-30) World Bank
Tourism offers significant opportunities for women’s participation, entrepreneurship, and leadership compared to other sectors, but there are challenges to address. The gender assessment of the tourism sector in the Gambia documents gender disparities and key issues hindering women’s participation and earnings in tourism through the lens of employment, entrepreneurship, and leadership. The assessment also examines cross-cutting factors such as policy and institutional environment, education, and social norms, which impact women’s economic opportunities in the sector and influence their decision to enter and remain in the sector. Despite women showing strong interest in hospitality, reflected in higher enrollment rates than men in tourism and hospitality institutes, this is not translating into higher employment shares due to a combination of key supply- and demand-side barriers. In tourism entrepreneurial activities, most women-owned businesses face challenges in skills development, securing finance, accessing tourism segments and markets, and are further limited by a lack of infrastructure and testing labs. In terms of tourism education, while women are the majority of students in formal tourism programs, they largely lack the high-level and soft skills training needed for career progression, and the school primarily serves the workforce level in hospitality, pointing to an opportunity for new curriculum development in The Gambia. Key to supporting Gambian women in tourism will be to the creation of a safer work environment, better policies and strong enforcement.
Better Results through Learning and Adaptation for a Better World Bank Group: The FY24 Management Action Record
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-25) World Bank
Following the 2020 Management Action Record (MAR) reforms, World Bank Group (WBG) Management prepares an annual self-assessment of its progress toward implementing the full range of outstanding Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) evaluation recommendations. The purpose of the Management Action Record (MAR) assessment system is to support accountability, learning, and adaptation for the WBG’s implementation of recommendations from IEG evaluations. This report is built on information gathering and sharing with IEG. In turn, IEG reviews Management’s self-assessment to judge progress toward achieving the outcomes of active recommendations. The recommendations involve, among other things, actions to enhance operational modalities, inform risk taking, improve guidance for staff, and improve results measurement systems. As part of the accountability function of the MAR, both Management’s self-assessment and IEG’s review are discussed with the Committee on Development Effectiveness (CODE) annually. The 2024 Fiscal Year (FY24) MAR reports on progress in implementing 77 recommendations from 28 evaluations, with 32 new recommendations in the FY24 cycle.
Balancing Act: Political Economy and the Pursuit of Ambitious Carbon Pricing in Developing Countries
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-09-09) World Bank
This report provides practical insights into the political economy challenges and opportunities for advancing carbon pricing, drawing on the experiences of select countries, including those in the World Bank’s Partnership for Market Implementation (PMI). Such countries often face different socioeconomic, political, and institutional environments than high-income economies. The review combines findings from academic literature in economics and political science, interviews with stakeholders, and an original survey of carbon pricing experts and policymakers in developing countries, to extract meaningful insights into how policymakers navigate political economy challenges to promote carbon pricing in developing countries. The report does not deal with the adoption of the broader set of climate policies that may also support mitigation. The premise of this report is that carbon pricing can be an effective and cost-effective instrument, one that has increasingly attracted government interest as a key part of the climate policy toolkit. The target audience for this report is national and subnational policymakers and other interested stakeholders seeking practical insights on realworld approaches that have worked or failed when advancing carbon pricing. The report does not prescribe best practices or cover every possible circumstance. Instead, by examining current practices at each stage of carbon pricing development, it aims to inform and assist in efforts to implement carbon pricing.
Defueling Conflict Environment and Natural Resource Management as a Pathway to Peace: Executive Summary
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-08-20) World Bank
Fragile and conflict-affected situations (FCS), environmental degradation, and natural disasters are on the rise and threaten to reverse development gains. In the past decade, violent civil conflicts have tripled and the number of people living in proximity to conflict has nearly doubled, with forced displacement at a record high. The World Bank Group (WBG) Strategy for Fragility, Conflict and Violence (FCV) 2020–2025 marks a shift in the World Bank’s work in fragile and conflict situations, as it adopts a more holistic approach to prevention. The Strategy seeks to enhance the World Bank Group’s effectiveness in supporting countries’ efforts to address the drivers and impacts of FCV and strengthen their resilience, especially for their most vulnerable and marginalized populations. The FCV Strategy explicitly recognizes the importance of climate change as a driver of FCV and as a threat multiplier, as well as the need to address the environmental impacts and drivers of FCV. Delivering on this shift toward preventing conflict underscores the importance of understanding the role the environment and natural resources can have. This report seeks to build a strong narrative on the need for the World Bank Group to engage and invest in environment, natural resource management, and climate change resilience in FCV-affected situations. It further aims at facilitating the integration of a conflict-sensitive lens into World Bank operations and programs addressing natural resource degradation and climate change. The report is divided in six sections: Section 1 sets the Background, Context, and Approach; Section 2 describes the risks associated with the interplay between natural resources, climate change, fragility, and conflict across the conflict cycle; Section 3 connects those causal chains to the delivery of the FCV Strategy across its four pillars; Section 4 showcases a suite of options to improve conflict-sensitive project design and implementation; and Section 5 presents an annotated questionnaire that serves as a complementary tool to the report.