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.

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Technical Assistance and Training in Integrated Provincial Planning : Quang Nam Province, Vietnam

(Washington, DC, 2008-12) World Bank

Traditionally both national and regional development planning in Vietnam has been driven by 'top-down' Central Government social and economic targets based on limited analytical investigation. However, with the advent of the free market economy in Vietnam since the late 1980s, vigorous global economic competitiveness and Vietnam's membership to the World Trade Organization (WTO), changes in national policy in Vietnam have now required a more decentralized approach to development planning based on the preparation of integrated regional development strategies. This change in policy direction requires the application of new and innovative approaches to development planning underpinned by 'best practice' tools and techniques. This new way of planning will more effectively manage current and future investment opportunities at the provincial and regional levels in Vietnam. This report is the culmination of the findings and recommendations of the project over this three month period noting that the training program itself involved a total of 45 participants from relevant provincial government and district level authorities in Quang Nam Province (QNP). Appendix two is a list of participants. It is emphasized that the method of training adopted in this technical assistance project was very interactive, it required individual and group tasks to be completed by participants based on the organization of participants into five teams, nomination of a team leader for each team and regular presentations of team activities to the whole group throughout the training program. The program ran for a total of seven days (7-9 October 2008 and 4-6 November 2008) with a 'report back' workshop session of all participants and other provincial government officials on 7 November 2008.
Brazil - Minas Gerais - World Bank Partnership : Building on a Strong Foundation and Leading to Next Steps

( 2007-06-06) World Bank

This document, Minas Gerais World Bank partnership: building on a strong foundation and leading to next steps, points the direction for next steps and emphasizes the elements and principles of a possible follow-up operation to the Development Policy Loan (DPL) that completed disbursement in April 2007, recognizing that it was premature to discuss the specifics of such an operation during this exercise. These elements and principles would provide the incentives and motivations for the choice of focus sectors under a possible Bank operation with Minas Gerais. Lead actively by the Governor and Deputy Governor, the Minas authorities have clearly identified enhancing the living conditions of citizens in the state as the overall priority. Nevertheless, the Minas Gerais targets are ambitious and by international standards there is ample room for additional progress. The report points out that fiscal policies and public sector reforms in Minas Gerais could be expected to yield continued stronger than national average economic growth and progress in creating jobs. The focus of this Partnership document is mainly on the Plano Mineiro de Desenvolvimento Integrado (PMDI) 2007-2023 long-term development strategy with an emphasis on broadening reforms. In short, the sectoral assessments are at the heart of the Partnership dialogue and could be used as the foundation for future development of the relationship, especially in areas of technical assistance or future Bank operations with Minas Gerais.
Indonesia : Selected Fiscal Issues in a New Era

(Washington, DC, 2003-02-14) World Bank

Despite the substantial progress in managing its fiscal challenges post-1997 financial crisis, Indonesia's risks to the budget have not disappeared, though the Government continues to be committed to fiscal consolidation. While debt sustainability is improving, the budget remains vulnerable to shocks, and, large non-discretionary spending (interest payments, transfers to the regions, personnel spending) still constrain the use of fiscal policy for macroeconomic stabilization, and social risk protection, and, as the fiscal situation improves, and decentralization proceeds, a rethinking of resource allocation becomes necessary. This report assesses Indonesia's progress in dealing with challenges that have altered the fiscal system since the crisis, and reviews options for fiscal consolidation, as well as sectoral issues in the new decentralized environment, including public expenditure management reforms. Suggestions include an increased revenue mobilization to make the budget more risk proof, and an improved tax administration, rather than streamlining the tax structure alone, while the Government's decision to eliminate the fuel subsidy remains critical for fiscal consolidation (which has little social implications). Moreover, the large interest payments burden incurred during the crisis, is crowding out development spending, and similarly, increased transfers to local governments are limiting discretionary spending (which could be accompanied by a decrease in central development spending in areas of regional responsibilities). A refinement of the budget management system is necessary, where the Finance Law would be instrumental in establishing accountability between the Executive, and Parliament.
Brazil : The New Growth Agenda, Volume 2. Detailed Report

(Washington, DC, 2002-12-31) World Bank

During the last century, Brazil was one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Between 1901 and 2000, Brazil's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita grew at an average annual rate of 4.4 percent. Brazil's long-run growth has rivaled that of counties such as South Korea, universally praised as a stellar performer. Brazil does not received the same praise. Perhaps one reason is that more has been expected of Brazil, especially by Brazilians themselves. After all the country is richly endowed with natural resources and is blessed with an energetic people. Perhaps is that economic growth in Brazil has been more erratic than in other countries, or it may be that this economic growth performance has been accompanied by high inequality, thus diminishing the "quality" of growth. How is it that the country with the fastest growth in the region also has the highest inequality? Are the two facts related, and if so, what can be done to improve the pattern of future income growth across the social classes, and reduce its extreme inequality and the breadth and depth of its poverty? The first volume summarizes the overall conclusions for policy drawn from the seven background papers presented in the second volume, and other relevant research, as well as giving a historical account of the driving forces behind Brazilian growth since the 1960s.
Brazil : The New Growth Agenda, Volume 1. Policy Briefing

(Washington, DC, 2002-12-31) World Bank

During the last century, Brazil was one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Between 1901 and 2000, Brazil's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita grew at an average annual rate of 4.4 percent. Brazil's long-run growth has rivaled that of counties such as South Korea, universally praised as a stellar performer. Brazil does not received the same praise. Perhaps one reason is that more has been expected of Brazil, especially by Brazilians themselves. After all the country is richly endowed with natural resources and is blessed with an energetic people. Perhaps is that economic growth in Brazil has been more erratic than in other countries, or it may be that this economic growth performance has been accompanied by high inequality, thus diminishing the "quality" of growth. How is it that the country with the fastest growth in the region also has the highest inequality? Are the two facts related, and if so, what can be done to improve the pattern of future income growth across the social classes, and reduce its extreme inequality and the breadth and depth of its poverty? The first volume summarizes the overall conclusions for policy drawn from the seven background papers presented in the second volume, and other relevant research, as well as giving a historical account of the driving forces behind Brazilian growth since the 1960s.
Brazil : Jobs Report, Volume 1. Policy Briefing

(Washington, DC, 2002-12-20) World Bank

This report, conducted jointly by researchers in Brazil and at the World Bank, aims to address the debate on how the Brazilian labor market functions. It does so not by focusing on labor market functioning but on its outcomes. What is central are labor market outcomes, such as adequate employment growth so that job-seekers can find gainful employment, acceptable worker productivity levels that are fairly compensated, and reasonable income security for workers and their households. This report is structured as follows: Chapter 1 argues that labor laws have begun to show signs of obsolescence. Chapter 2 shows this is reflected in deteriorating outcomes. Key indicators--employment growth, labor force participation, unemployment rates, and income security--all point to worsening labor market functioning since the mid-1990s. The report then examines how changed macroeconomic circumstances call for changes in labor market institutions, regulations, and interventions. Using a characterization of the economy in which informality has a central role, Chapter 3 illustrates the correspondence between the three main macroeconomic phenomena of the 1990s--greater openness, stabilization, and fiscal adjustment--and Brazil's labor market priorities. Chapter 4 concludes that the labor market has signaled the shortage of educated workers since the 1990s, and the onus is now on the education and training systems to respond. Analysis of how Brazil's labor market functions in Chapter 5 points to evidence that indicates that Brazil's poorer workers and smaller firms are especially disadvantaged by how the labor market functions. The report identifies three sets of priorities for reform: changes in mandated non-wage benefits and minimum wage setting to price labor correctly and encourage empoloyment growth (Chapter 6), changes in severance legislation and functioning of labor courts to better align incentives and increase productivity (Chapter 7), and improvements in interventions to increase income security for all workers (Chapter 8). Chapter 9 summarizes and highlights the main policy implications. Volume 2 contains in-depth examination of the issues of interest in Brazil and the relevant international experience, on which Chapters 1 through 8 of the first volume are based.
India - Maharashtra : Reorienting Government to Facilitate Growth and Reduce Poverty, Volume 2. Statistical Appendix, Other Annexes, and Workshop Programs

(Washington, DC, 2002-10-31) World Bank

Maharashtra's leadership position in India is under threat. The State is facing several bottlenecks to development: the private sector is no longer embracing Maharashtra and the public sector banks are increasingly reluctant to assist Maharashtra in its off-budget endeavors. Thus, the status quo is not an option. Regaining its leadership position is well within Maharashtra's reach. Among its many strengths are: the large pool of literate and skilled labor force, a well-developed financial system, a talented bureaucracy, and willingness to break with the ways of the past. If the State can successfully implement its reform agenda, it can quickly rebound and be back on the path of growth and prosperity. The lessons of the past decade suggest two guiding principles: First, the Government needs to articulate the message that its reforms are not to hurt, but to help the farmers. If reforms are to succeed, they have to be pro-farmer and pro-poor. Maharashtra's fiscal stress, be it due to power and irrigation subsidies or due to the losses in cotton and sugar interventions, has a close connection with the rural sector. However, as analyzed in Chapter 4, the current rural interventions are imposing a huge and unsustainable fiscal cost on the state, and more importantly, the bulk of the benefits are accruing to the rural rich. the challenge for the government, therefore, is to provide more efficient, equitable, and sustainable assistance to the rural poor. Second, the government's reform program needs to be designed and implemented with a medium- to long-term perspective. Piecemeal, short-term reforms can only bring short-term gains. The Government of Maharashtra faces a simple choice: to try to succeed in a difficult reform endeavor, or, since the policies of the past no longer work, to give up without trying and condemn itself to developmental and fiscal failure. Through its 2002-03 Budget Speech, the Government has indicated that it has chosen the former path. The quicker it moves along it, the greater the chances of success.
Long-Term Policy Options for the Palestinian Economy

(Washington, DC, 2002-07) World Bank

In light of deteriorating economic relations between Israel and the West Bank and Gaza, and suspended peace negotiations, it is timely at this juncture between the lapsed Interim Period and a final status agreement to examine past experience with a view to assessing the policy choices facing Palestinian policymakers in the future. The post-Oslo experience points to failed economic normalization and income convergence with Israel. Several reasons for these failures have been advanced, including poor implementation of the Paris Protocol, as well as fundamental flaws inherent to the protocol itself. The experience under the Paris Protocol illustrates the degree to which political and economic factors are intertwined; both types of factors need to be addressed in a comprehensive framework. The fact that political pressures from Israeli security concerns introduced severe economic hardship on the Palestinians and threatened newly-gained Palestinian autonomy contributed to the unraveling of the interim agreement. The economic environment of uncertainty, risk, costly transactions, and inadequate legal, regulatory and financial institutions hampered private sector development and especially Palestinian-Israeli partnerships and business networks at the firm level, effectively weakening an important tie that holds civil society together. These factors further undermined Palestinian economic growth, laying the foundation for political crisis and civil conflict. Given the problems associated with the existing policy framework, this analysis examines alternative policy options that will face Palestinian policymakers in the event of a peace agreement with Israel. These future policy choices relate to trade, labor mobility to Israel, and the business environment and associated public-private interactions. In a first stage, each policy area is analyzed separately, that is, in a partial equilibrium context independent of the others without accounting for broader intersectoral relationships. In a second stage, the analysis brings together these separate areas into an integrated framework. A range of assumptions vis-e-vis the nature of borders between West Bank and Gaza and Israel is delineated, tying together the trade, labor and private sector development considerations to measure their combined impact on growth prospects. The analysis develops scenarios to reflect different combinations of future policy options linked to the nature of borders with Israel. This simulation exercise illustrates the relative merits of each scenario, the associated trade-offs, and the prospects for economic growth in the event of a peace agreement and a completion of final status negotiations.
Bhutan : Private Sector Survey

(Washington, DC, 2002-06-14) World Bank

Two of the seven major development challenges of the Royal Government of Bhutan identified for the Donors Development Forum, held in Thimpu in November 2000, were private sector development and employment generation. Given the fact that the public sector is unlikely to expand further in the forseeable future, these issues become two sides of the same coin. Future employment generation in Bhutan can only come from the further growth of the private sector. The prinicpal objectives of this report and associated survey work is to assist the Government in developing an improved information base on the private sector and to thereby assist it in formulating its strategy for private sector support over the period of the Ninth Five-Year Development Plan. The main recommendations put forth for private sector development include: Establishment of a transparent system of tax relief and possibly a system of industry levies to support radically increased worker and management training. Development of a transparent, time-bound, policy for recruiting non-national workers. Encouragement of the development of innovative financial instruments and payment modalities. Support of technology transfer mechanisms and provide incentives through tax breaks. Finalization and approval of the new foreign direct investment law. Implementation of a system of duty drawback on imported raw materials used to produce export products. Development of a clear, consistent, and transparent policy environment.
Brazil : Growth and Poverty Reduction in Pernambuco

(Washington, DC, 2002-01-28) World Bank

Despite its origin as one of the pioneering and richest states of Brazil, Pernambuco today has a history of slower economic growth than Brazil as a whole. Pernambuco began as a sugar producing state and the expansion of sugar production led its economic development until the mid 1600s. Then Pernambuco declined, as sugar production became more profitable elsewhere in the world. It is estimated that, since 1939, the first year for which we have regionalized GDP data, Pernambuco's growth rate has been slower than Brazil's average. Although poverty data is much more recent, the story provided by the available data is that since the early 1980s, Pernambuco has made little or no headway in reducing absolute poverty. These facts motivate the present report, which focuses on 1) analyzing, in collaboration with the Government of Pernambuco, economic growth and poverty in the State; and 2) identifying policies that can enhance economic growth and reduce poverty while improving fiscal performance. These two themes govern the structure of the report, with the first chapter focusing on growth and poverty reduction performance and the second chapter focusing on policies to improve those performances. The remainder of this introductory section provides some historical and geographical background of the state.