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.

Items in this collection

Now showing 1 - 10 of 13

Socio-Emotional Drivers of Youth Unemployment: The Case of Higher Educated Youth in Sudan

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-06) De Martino, Samantha ; Farfán, Gabriela ; Gayoso, Lyliana ; Osman, Eiman

This study seeks to contribute to the existing literature in Sudan by analyzing psychological, social, and behavioral drivers of youth employment in combination with key structural issues identified in the country. Our analysis is based in existing literature on the structural problems that Sudanese youth face to accessing the labor market and uses a novel dataset to examine the factors that determine youth’s career aspirations as well as the factors that serve as barriers to achieve their career aspirations. In addition, the study explores the role of mindsets and soft skills, both as direct determinants of labor market outcomes as well as indirect determinants through their impact on aspirations. Specifically, we measure mental health (anxiety), core self-beliefs, and job-relevant soft skills that moderate the way individuals manage and interact socially in the labor market. Core self-evaluation beliefs determine the way individuals perceive their own basic capabilities, and soft skills are a set of learned, realized behaviors that allow individuals to effectively manage inter- and intrapersonal situations. The aim of this study is to provide a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the youth unemployment challenge to help identify potential cost-effective interventions that support youth’s job search and employability in Sudan.
Mali Public Expenditure Review

(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2022-03) World Bank

Mali is a low-income, fragile country that has suffered extraordinary setbacks in recent years. It is a landlocked economy which is highly dependent on agriculture, and thus vulnerable to external shocks and adverse weather condition. With a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of US 875 dollars (current USD) in 2019, Mali is in the lower 15th percentile of the world’s income distribution. Around 42 percent of the population live in extreme poverty. It is also a fragile state that has witnessed persistent conflict with political coups, social tensions, insecurity, and violence. The coup in 2012 has led to continued violence and displacement, leaving 8.7 million people, more than 45 percent of the population, living in crisis affected areas. It was followed by the military coup in August 2020 which has brought in a transitional civil government. The increasingly fragile security situation has also led to spikes in security expenditure, crowding out spending on public services and investment. This Public Expenditure Review (PER) proposes options to address this challenge, including improving spending efficiency and identifying ways to equitably increase domestic revenue. The policy actions and reforms it proposes will create the fiscal space to promote inclusive and sustainable growth. Starting with an overview of macro-fiscal developments, it examines Mali’s expenditure patterns and fiscal sustainability and benchmarks its performance against peer countries. It reviews the domestic revenue needed to meet the Government’s significant financing requirements and how the public finances are managed. It then investigates public spending efficiency in three sectors: education, health, and agriculture. These were chosen for their economic and social importance as well as their considerable share of public expenditure (over 30 percent). The PER provides some context for each sector, then analyzes financing and efficiency using a set of methodologies based on granular spending data and surveys, and concludes with suggested policy actions.
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) Costa, Valentina ; Contreras Gonzalez, Ivette Maria ; Palacios-Lopez, Amparo

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.
African Cities Facing the Urban Mobility Crisis: The Challenge of National Mobility Policies in Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Togo Confronted with the Proliferation of Motorized Two-Wheelers - Transnational Report

(Washington, DC, 2022-01-31) World Bank

Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo and Benin are experiencing rapid urban growth, supported by strong demographic growth. Between 2018 and 2030, the cities in these four countries are expected to have an extra 17 million inhabitants. By 2030, the populations of Ouagadougou and Bamako are expected to double: these two capitals will reach 5.4 and 4.6 million inhabitants, respectively. Lomé and Cotonou are forecast, with lower growth rates, to reach roughly 3 million inhabitants. These metropolitan areas will need to restructure to meet the challenges inherent to their size. However, their growth-related challenges should not overshadow those of the other, so called secondary cities. Although urban migration and growth tend to center on the capitals, the secondary cities, which are much smaller, will by 2030 see increases in population exceeding the capacity of their infrastructure systems. An extra 10 million inhabitants will move to urban areas that often lack infrastructure and basic urban services. This report focuses on a cross analysis of the work conducted simultaneously in 2019 in the four West African countries. The methodology adopted is described below. In each of the countries, under the authority of the ministries in charge of urban mobility, the Consultant produced a diagnostic report and organized a national mobility forum involving all public and private institutional players (at central and local level), civil society and technical and financial partners. Conducted under the supervision of the pertinent ministries and local authorities, these national workshops provided the opportunity to discuss the experts’ recommendations in more depth and to define the elements of reform required to enable implementation of a sustainable urban mobility policy. This exercise made it possible to propose, for each country, a draft urban mobility policy letter, a national strategy document in line with the EASI concept (Enable-Avoid-Shift-Improve), and a priority action plan for implementation. A sub-regional workshop was organized in Bamako on 6 and 7 February 2020 with a view to promoting the sharing of experience and enabling a comparative analysis of the methods and results. It was attended by delegations from the four countries covered by this SSATP support program, creating an opportunity to define a shared vision of urban mobility, both for the capital cities and for the secondary cities, and to identify areas of transnational cooperation. This report is based on the work conducted in the four countries and offers a common interpretation of the situation in the four countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Togo), supported by an analysis of the specific local contexts and national situations.
Poverty and Vulnerability in the Ethiopian Lowlands: Building a More Resilient Future

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019) World Bank Group ; U.K. Department of International Development

This study responds to a request in March 2018 by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Cooperation (MoFEC), to the World Bank and Department for International Development (DfID) to carry out a study of the lowlands with a view to strengthening the resilience of lowland populations to external shocks. This overview synthesizes the nine self-standing chapters of the report that examine different dimensions of poverty, vulnerability, and resilience to shocks in the Ethiopian lowlands. To identify a policy agenda fostering resilience in the lowlands, the report adopts an analytical framework with three main features. First, the livelihood system of the population in the lowlands is examined in detail for the purpose of providing a better understanding of the patterns of behavior observed and the factors that are associated with the prevalence of poverty at a given point in time and changes in poverty over time. Second, a distinction is made between the poverty status of a household at a given point in time and the vulnerability of a household to poverty, which is about the likelihood of a household being poor in the future. Third, emphasis is placed on understanding the different sources of household vulnerability in the lowlands, how these sources of vulnerability have evolved over time, and how the capacity of households to cope with changes has evolved.
Benin : Transport Assessment Note for Roads, Airports, and Port Sectors

(Washington, DC, 2007-06-28) World Bank

The purpose of this Economic Sector Work (ESW) is to: (i) provide a framework to help the government analyze transport sector issues and finalize the update of the transport sector strategy; and (ii) identify issues and challenges that can be addressed through donor funded operations. This ESW focuses on roads, air, and port transport. Transport infrastructure and services have a vital role to play in the economic and social development of the country. They were designed to facilitate the distribution and sale of income-generating products, mainly cotton; to promote goods transit towards neighboring countries; and to facilitate trade between towns and rural areas, and ensuring access to social infrastructure and services in the rural area. The formal transport sector contributes approximately seven percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), but its indirect contribution to the creation of added value is much greater.
An Assessment of the Investment Climate in Botswana, Volume 2. Detailed Results and Econometric Analysis

(Washington, DC, 2007-06) World Bank

The objective of the Botswana Investment Climate Assessment (ICA) is to evaluate the investment climate in Botswana in all its operational dimensions and promote policies to strengthen the private sector. The investment climate is made up of the many location specific factors that shape the opportunities and incentives for firms to invest productively, create jobs, and expand. These factors include macroeconomic and regulatory policies; the security of property rights and the rule of law; and the quality of supporting institutions such as physical and financial infrastructure. The main sources of information for the ICA are two firm-level surveys. The first survey covered Small, Medium, and Large Enterprises (SMLEs) with five or more employees in retail trade, manufacturing, and other services. The second covered micro enterprise with fewer than five employees in the same sectors. Information from the survey is supplemented with information from other sources, including the doing business report; analytical reports by the World Bank, the international monetary fund, other international organizations and the Government of Botswana; and academic papers and reports. Although the analysis in this report suggests that there are some areas where the investment climate might be improved, it is important to note none of these problems with the possible exception of worker skills appear to be particularly debilitating. This suggests that other factors are probably also playing a role. One such factor is likely to be the small size (in terms of population) and remoteness of the economy. Another factor is the effect that is the macroeconomic effects of the large mining economy has on the competitiveness of the rest of the economy. Improving living standards and cutting poverty depends on broad-based economic growth, which will only take place when firms improve worker productivity by investing in human and physical capital and technological capacity. But firms will only invest when the investment climate is favorable.
Tanzania - Subnational Costs of Doing Business in Tanzania : An Assessment of Doing Business in Arusha, Dodoma, Iringa, Kigoma, Mtwara, Mwanza, and Zanzibar

(Washington, DC, 2007-05) World Bank

This report assesses some of the more significant doing business indicators including how easy it is to register a business, obtain a license, transfer property, connect basic utilities, and obtain an overdraft in 8 regions of Tanzania. The time and cost of completing these transactions play a significant role for local investors in their decision of whether to operate in a country's formal sector, thus affecting its investment and growth performance. The doing business assessment provides an index for measuring the ease of doing business across 175 developing and developed countries. The assessment promotes awareness of and focus on private sector needs, and oftentimes competition in reform programs among countries.The indicators look at 10 key operating areas for a firm, ranging from starting up and getting credit to closing the business. The report studies a theoretical firm. Data is based on research of laws and regulations in a country's main business city or capital. Input and verification are supplied by local government officials, lawyers, business consultants, accountants, and other professionals who routinely administer or advise on legal and regulatory requirements. The most important objective of this sub national report and related survey is to help the local governments and agency officials who directly facilitate firm operations within the regions to better understand and more effectively help Tanzania's businesses increase their investment, enhance their productivity, and drive the country's economic growth.
Mauritius - Country Economic Memorandum : Managing Change in a Changing World

(Washington, DC, 2007-01) World Bank

This Country Economic Memorandum subscribes to the overall direction of the reform program mapped out by this body of work and it goes deeper in three important areas: (1) public sector management, (2) labor markets and education and (3) science and technology policy. Chapters 2-4 of this report, each one largely self-contained, cover these topics in order. First, however, Chapter 1 gives the context for the transition now underway with an overview of past and present development focusing on the transformation of the economy from factor-intensive to skill- and knowledge-intensive development. Then a forward-looking section offers a medium-term forecast for the economy's emergence from the recent slowdown and discusses prospects for longer-term (potential) growth.
Democratic Republic of Congo : Health, Nutrition and Population, Country Status Report

(Washington, DC, 2005-05) World Bank

The objective of this report is to describe and analyze the health, nutrition, and population situation in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in order to inform the Government's strategy development in the sector, particularly in the context of its Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). The report analyzes health, nutrition, and population outcomes and determinants, focusing on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the health situation of the poor. Health service utilization and i t s determinants are assessed, and the main features of the health system described. The policies and strategies of Government and external partners are discussed, with particular attention to the health care financing situation and its impact on the poor.