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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Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
  • Publication
    Managing Flood Risks: Leveraging Finance for Business Resilience in Malaysia
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-19) World Bank; Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM)
    Building resilience to natural disasters is imperative for sustainable private sector development and growth in Malaysia. Floods have been Malaysia’s most frequent natural disaster, accounting for 85 percent of all natural disasters since 2000. This report looks holistically at the challenges of adaptation to climate change for businesses, exploring the complementarity among the public sector, the financial sector, and the private sector efforts in managing flood risks. It does so by using a range of complementary analyses that bring together the private sector perspective drawn from a firm-level survey, the financial sector perspective based on a survey of financial institutions (both banks and insurers and takaful operators), along with macro-modelling estimates of the aggregate impacts of future floods. The report concludes with a roadmap for policy action to strengthen private sector resilience and enhance the management of flood risks for businesses, zooming in on policies for the financial sector.
  • Publication
    Trading Towards Sustainability: The Role of Trade Policies in Indonesia’s Green Transformation
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-01-22) Montfaucon, Angella Faith; Lakatos, Csilla; Agnimaruto, Bayu; Silberring, Jana Mirjam
    Climate change - and efforts to mitigate and adapt to it - will affect global flows of trade and Indonesia’s ability to transition to a more environmentally sustainable economy on its path to become a high-income economy is, therefore, interlinked with trade policy. Environmental policy stringency (EPS) is increasing around the globe - a crucial challenge lies in harmonizing these with sustained economic growth, yet both goals can be reached. Although trade flows facilitate emissions, they are also a critical part of the solution, including through trade in environmental goods (EGs) and plastic substitutes - with important economic spillovers. This report provides a detailed analysis of the role of trade and trade policy on EGs and plastic substitutes in Indonesia’s green transition. Chapter one describes the need for, and urgency of, this transition, by looking at the carbon intensity of Indonesia’s trade, the impacts of environmental policies of Indonesia and key trading partners, and the roles of EGs. Chapter two examines where Indonesia stands on the level of trade in EGs and plastic substitutes and the competitiveness of EGs trade. Chapter three explores trade agreements and tariffs and simulates potential impacts of tariff reforms - including through multilateral actions. Chapter four examines what non-tariff measures (NTMs) apply on the products including inputs of firms exporting EGs and assesses which NTMs may be costly. Finally, chapter five concludes with policy recommendations.
  • Publication
    Promoting Innovative Entrepreneurship in Viet Nam: An Ecosystem Diagnostic
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-12-05) World Bank
    This report provides a diagnostic of Viet Nam’s entrepreneurship ecosystem and details a set of targeted recommendations for improving conditions for innovative entrepreneurship in the country. The diagnostic consists of four components: 1.) An overview of the Vietnamese private sector, with a focus on market dynamism; 2.) A demand side analysis focused on the flow of ideas, skills, and technology that contribute to the pipeline of innovative startups; 3.) A supply-side assessment of public support and private risk finance throughout the firm lifecycle, and 4.) An analysis of the ecosystem framework conditions. The report finds that the overall quality and the level of public support for entrepreneurship is low; founders have challenges with key aspects of running a business, such as developing product-market fit, growth strategies, and team building; and risk capital markets are heavily dependent on foreign funds and investors and have gaps in early-stage finance. The report concludes with three policy recommendations for improving Viet Nam’s entrepreneurial performance: 1.) Reorient the national flagship Program 844 on "Supporting the National Innovation Initiative to 2025" toward building a pipeline of investment-ready, innovative startups; 2.) Address regulatory barriers related to risk capital investments; and 3.) Increase the contribution of the public research sector to the innovative startup agenda.
  • Publication
    Pacific Maritime Transport Systems: Hazard Exposure Technical Note
    (Washington, DC, 2023-12-04) World Bank
    This Technical Note supplements the overarching regional report 'A Blue Transformation for Pacific Maritime Transport (World Bank, 2022)'. It provides more detail on, and analysis of, natural hazards in the Pacific affecting port infrastructure and operations. While natural hazards are a major issue for all Pacific Island states and dependencies, this Technical Note looks particularly at the experiences of 12 World Bank member countries, referred to collectively as the PIC12 countries. These are the Melanesian countries of Papua New Guinea (PNG), Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Fiji; the Polynesian countries of Samoa, Tonga, and Tuvalu; and the Micronesian countries of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Palau, Kiribati, and Nauru. This Note aims to assist technical specialists, client country teams, and donors, to identify needs and priorities for more detailed, site-specific risk studies. These risk studies will form the basis of port master planning, project design, asset management, and capital upgrade projects, as appropriate, to increase resilience in ports to the impacts of natural hazards. This Technical Note has six sections, as follows: overview: a summary of why Pacific ports is particularly exposed to natural hazards; mapping Pacific Islands’ Current Exposure to Hazards: descriptions of the seven natural hazards facing Pacific Island countries (PICs), and maps showing where in the Pacific their main impacts are felt; identifying where the greatest hazards lie, a hazard heat map for the pacific: quantitative and qualitative measures of the hazard intensities are summarized for primary and hub ports, with general observations and conclusions; current status of infrastructure upgrades in Pacific ports: a summary of work, both completed and planned, in each of the PIC12 primary ports, between 2007 and 2022; port master planning to future-proof Pacific ports: a brief outline of port master planning, strategic asset management and risk analysis, and principles of asset management for port infrastructure; and conclusions and recommendations.
  • Publication
    Developing Ecotourism in Cambodia: Cambodia Policy Note
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2021-01-30) Rawlins, Maurice Andres; Kornexl, Werner L.; Steinmayr, Elisabeth
    Cambodia is blessed with a vast array of spectacular landscapes and pristine natural riches. This natural beauty, along with the country’s cultural wonders, is what ecotourists come to Cambodia for. The opportunities for supporting the expansion of the ecotourism industry to meet this demand are immense. Ecotourism involves traveling to areas of pristine nature, usually protected, to appreciate the environment while causing minimal impact. Ecotourism offers multiple benefits. However, the impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) on the tourism industry in Cambodia has been significant. The epidemic has escalated rapidly from a health emergency to a full economic crisis. Since the beginning of the outbreak, several local and international surveys have been conducted that can help us understand the impacts of Coronavirus (COVID-19) on Cambodia’s tourism sector and guide the recovery. This note presents policy options to support the sustainable development of ecotourism as part of a broader strategy for sustainable management of the country’s natural capital. In addition, the policy note provides recommendations to the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) to help the recovery of the tourism sector post-COVID-19.