Other ESW Reports
242 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
Household Surveys during Multiple Crises: Modifying Questionnaires to Assess the Impact of Shocks
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-09-25)Beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has experienced multiple global crises in the last few years. As countries adapt to a new normal, multi-topic household surveys should also be adapted to account for the impacts of shocks on household welfare. By reviewing the standard household survey questionnaires included in the guidebook, capturing what matters: essential guidelines for designing household surveys, the authors provide technical guidance on issues to consider when reviewing, designing, or updating questionnaires for household surveys during or after a major shock - relying on lessons learned from the World Bank’s Living Standards Measurement Study program. -
Publication
Voices from Yemen
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-14)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. -
Publication
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)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. -
Publication
COVID-19 in Papua New Guinea - Economic and Social Impacts: Insights from the Fourth Round of High Frequency Phone Surveys - Data Collected in December 2021
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-07-18)This report focuses on the socio-economic impacts of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Papua New Guinea. The report shows insights from the fourth round of high frequency phone surveys conducted as of December 2021. Economic recovery was weak with household incomes falling. Low vaccination rates may further hinder recovery and welfare outcomes. -
Publication
Socio-Emotional Drivers of Youth Unemployment: The Case of Higher Educated Youth in Sudan
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-06)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. -
Publication
Poverty and Vulnerability in the Ethiopian Lowlands: Building a More Resilient Future
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019)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. -
Publication
How Capital Projects are Allocated in Papua New Guinean Villages : The Influence of Local Collective Action, Local-level Institutions, and Electoral Politics
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-08)Papua New Guinea (PNG) has implemented numerous institutional changes over the past fifteen years with the avowed aim of bringing government closer to the people, improving accountability and, by extension, local infrastructure development and service delivery. To date however, there has been little empirical evidence to establish whether these changes have impacted the provision of local infrastructure. Similarly, there is little empirical evidence revealing the main political economy factors that influence the way that resources are actually planned, spent, and impact communities at the sub-national level. This report investigates the determinants of local infrastructure projects at the ward level, the lowest level of government in PNG, to assess the impact of these institutional changes and to identify the importance of other factors, in particular local collective action. It does this through a survey covering more than 1000 households across 49 yards in nine PNG districts. It also presents descriptive statistics on the basic characteristics of the households that were surveyed, their knowledge of local level institutions, their participation in groups, and their voting behavior. The report explores especially the determinants of variation within districts in terms of the presence of new projects. Common wisdom in PNG suggests that the home wards of Members of Parliament (MPs) should be especially favored with projects. In six districts, the data includes this ward; these six home wards are no different from other wards in their district with respect to the presence of new projects. The survey asked questions about electoral behavior, the provision of cash and other gifts in exchange for votes and electoral violence. The survey found significant inter-district variation, with vote-buying dramatically higher in the three Highlands districts, where 42 percent of respondents report receiving cash, compared to 9 percent in the other districts. Within districts, vote-buying and the provision of local public works projects are inversely related. Vote-buying is also far more common in the three districts that exhibit the most electoral violence. -
Publication
Romania - Poverty Monitoring Analytical and Advisory Assistance Program : Are the Most Vulnerable Protected?
(Washington, DC, 2008-06)The rapid economic growth since 2000 has been the main driver of poverty reduction in Romania. However, even under the current positive growth scenario, there are still people who live in poverty, and some who are unlikely to benefit from future growth and thus may continue to be left behind. For these people an effective redistributive social policy and targeted interventions are needed. The purpose of this note is to assist the Ministry of Labor, Family and Equal Opportunities (MLFEO) to analyze and monitor the effectiveness of the main social safety net benefits to fight social exclusion and reduce poverty. To determine the extent to which social transfers offer protection to the poorest groups of the population, the paper uses the last available (2004-2006) rounds of the household budget survey data. The analysis presented here uses the consumption aggregate and the absolute poverty definition presented in the 2003 and 2007 poverty assessments. Three main indicators are used to assess the effectiveness of social protection (SP) programs: coverage (share of population covered by the programs), targeting (share of funds directed to each welfare group of population), and adequacy of benefit (share of the benefit in the consumption of beneficiaries). The paper begins with a review of the main findings, followed by an overview of the social protection system and its overall effectiveness. Then it assesses the main social assistance programs, and concludes with a review of key issues. -
Publication
Yemen Poverty Assessment : Volume 2. Annexes
(Washington, DC, 2007-11)From what was historically known as 'Arabia Felix', a land of prosperity and happiness, Yemen has become the most impoverished among the Arab countries. The government of the united Yemen, formed in 1990, has launched so far three five-year economic reform plans with the goal of restoring Yemen's prosperity. Have these efforts succeeded? What policies are needed to further reduce poverty? The poverty assessment report aims to answer these questions. This report measures poverty in Yemen in 2005-06, and evaluates the change in poverty compared to 1998, the two years for which comparable household budget surveys are available. The period between the two survey years (1998 and 2005-06), more or less overlaps the first two five-year economic plans and captures the effect of the economic reform programs launched since 1995. In addition to measuring poverty, this report has three objectives: evaluating the role of growth and past reforms on poverty, identifying better ways to target the vulnerable poor through public action, and an assessment of the poverty monitoring system. By examining the effect of the key policies on poverty, such as the petroleum price reform and the government's social protection mechanisms between 1998 and 2005-06, the study aims to equip policy makers and development partners with the knowledge needed to improve the effectiveness of their efforts to reduce poverty in Yemen. -
Publication
From Social Funds to Local Governance and Social Inclusion Programs : A Prospective Review From the ECA Region - Technical Annexes
( 2007-05-01)The role and relevance of Social Fund Community-Driven Development (SF/CDD) has been highly debated in the international development community. Some conceive these programs only as parallel and temporary arrangements that can ensure short-term delivery of development benefits. Others emphasize the flexibility of the SF/CDD instrument in adopting different institutional forms depending on the country context, and their contributions to long-term development challenges. The aim of this study is to provide guidance on the question of social fund relevance. The report is organized into six chapters and a set of annexes. Chapter 1 defines social funds and their main rationales. Chapter 2 provides an overview of their origins in ECA, basic facts about the Bank operations and SF performance, and develops a typology based on policy objectives. Chapter 3 summarizes the institutional arrangements of social funds in the Region and then reviews them within the wider vision of optimal public sector arrangements. Chapter 4 looks at local infrastructure and governance funds, evaluating their design against a set of good practice benchmarks for promoting local governance, and drawing implications for the future. Chapter 5 conducts a similar exercise but for social inclusion funds. The final chapter summarizes the main answers to the study questions and elaborates a set of options for future engagement with social funds, taking into account different country contexts. In the Second Volume, Annexes provide more detailed background material.