Other ESW Reports

253 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 253

Middle Trade and Transport Corridor: Policies and Investments to Triple Freight Volumes and Halve Travel Time by 2030

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-11-26) World Bank

The Middle Corridor (MC) is a multimodal transport corridor connecting China to Europe, which has been receiving elevated attention following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The MC links China, and Kazakhstan by rail through Dostyk or Khorgos/Altynkol, crosses Kazakhstan by rail to the Aktau Port, crosses the Caspian Sea to the Port of Baku/Alyat, and Azerbaijan and Georgia by rail to then either continue by rail to Europe through Türkiye or crossing the Black Sea. Due to inefficiencies and infrastructure gaps in Türkiye, the Black Sea route is currently preferred by operators. This report focuses on the route traversing Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Georgia; a subsequent study will focus on Türkiye. The MC, with its numerous border crossings, transshipments between modes and operational inefficiencies, takes three times longer than the Northern route (via Russia) and is comparable in duration to the maritime route. As a result, it has consequently held a lower priority for long-distance trade.
Digital Conglomerates in East Asia: Navigating Competition Policy Challenges

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-11-21) World Bank

Conglomeration has traditionally been prevalent in Asia, a trend that is currently exacerbated by the characteristics of digital markets. While conglomerates offer important benefits, from economies of scale and diversification to the development of new products, they can also have a negative impact on market dynamics. This report examines conglomeration trends in five Asian countries, Malaysia, Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam, to better understand whether offline conglomerates are expanding into digital markets vis a vis the expansion of purely digital conglomerates into adjacent and non-adjacent markets. The report focuses on one of the main expansion strategies: conglomerate mergers and acquisitions. To this end, it explores the prevalence of conglomerate mergers, both globally and within the East Asia region, the type of competition scrutiny they are submitted to, and potential aspects to strengthen their review to foster more effective competition policies. The report concludes with a set of key policy recommendations that address the identified risks.
The Brazil of the Future: Towards Productivity, Inclusion, and Sustainability

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-11-13) World Bank Group

In 2022, Brazil celebrated its 200th anniversary. What will Brazil celebrate at its 220th anniversary, in 2042? Following the recent elections there is a window of opportunity for reforms that will shape Brazil’s development over the next decades. “The Brazil of the Future: Towards Productivity, Inclusion, and Sustainability” takes a long-term perspective on Brazil’s development, exploring how prudent actions today can generate opportunities for a more prosperous, inclusive, and sustainable society over the next 20 years. The report aims to stimulate public debate about a virtuous cycle for 2042, illustrated by four alternative future scenarios. With the right reforms Brazil can become an economic powerhouse that offers opportunities for all. A more inclusive social contract can facilitate critical reforms.
Diagnostic Analysis for Circular Economy Interventions in Bulgaria

(Washington, DC, 2023-11-13) World Bank

Over the past decade, material efficiency and resource productivity have surfaced on the global policy agenda. The rise of the circular economy (CE) agenda reflects the objective of moving away from the current systems of production and consumption based on the ‘take-make-use-waste’ linear economic model toward economies centered on minimizing the use of virgin materials without adversely affecting welfare. The focus is on a life-cycle approach to resource management, which starts with reducing raw material demand by looping resources back into consumption and production systems through innovations in material design, production, and reutilization processes. In addition to reducing pollution and other harmful emissions, the CE can be a driver of private sector growth and jobs and can increase the strategic autonomy of countries by reducing dependence on raw material imports. The objective of this rapid analysis is to identify the CE-related priority areas, sectors in Bulgaria and potential areas of focus for follow-up interventions. The study also aims to highlight concrete barriers that prevent the national and local governments from undertaking these interventions, as well as enabling factors and approaches to overcome them.
Impacts of Covid-19 on the World Bank’s Forest Investment Program Portfolio

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-11-10) World Bank

With the COVID-19 pandemic, the development context for the world is fundamentally challenged in many ways. The pandemic has taken a drastic human toll, and its global-scale economic and social impacts affected rural development work focused on the most poor and vulnerable populations. It has also highlighted the increasing need to invest in natural climate solutions that protect and restore critical ecosystems, support climate stability and ecosystem resilience, and help people access livelihood opportunities. This report provides an in-depth portfolio analysis of WB-implemented FIP and DGM projects during the pandemic, gathering information from documents and directly from stakeholders involved in these projects on the impacts of the pandemic during their preparation and implementation, finding trends in delays in project activities, and identifying coping mechanisms used to overcome the challenges resulting from the pandemic. For example, some projects have shifted activities requiring in-person engagement, such as training and workshops, to a virtual format. Other projects use electronic monitoring and data collection tools to follow up on activity implementation. Finally, this report provides a few general lessons for the CIF program, WB-financed operations, donors, and other external international development partners. Although the COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose a challenge, authors now hope, having already experienced it for roughly three years, to learn from the various adaptation measures implemented by the projects, for application to future shocks.
Abordando las brechas de derechos humanos de las personas migrantes y refugiadas venezolanas considerando aspectos de género en el Perú

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-11-03) World Bank

Las Ollas Comunes son espacios autogestionados, conformados principalmente por mujeres, que han surgido históricamente en países de América Latina para responder a crisis multidimensionales y a las necesidades alimentarias de las personas más vulnerables. Este estudio tiene como objetivo identificar oportunidades de integración social entre mujeres peruanas y mujeres migrantes y refugiadas venezolanas mediante su intervención en las Ollas Comunes de Lima. A través de métodos cualitativos y participativos con enfoque etnográfico, se describe la participación de las mujeres en estos espacios comunitarios, se analizan sus dinámicas y se identifican las brechas de derechos humanos basadas en aspectos de género existentes. Los hallazgos del estudio muestran el potencial que poseen las Ollas Comunes como espacios de integración social; por ejemplo, mediante su contribución en la creación de redes de apoyo. En esa línea, el estudio incluye recomendaciones para incrementar el impacto positivo de las Ollas Comunes en la integración social de mujeres venezolanas refugiadas y migrantes a las comunidades de acogida.
Climate Change and Disability Inclusion in Uzbekistan

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-10-26) World Bank

The impacts of climate change will be unevenly felt within and across countries partly due to social and economic inequalities. Persons with disabilities represent 16 percent of the global population and face widespread forms of social and economic marginalization yet have received little attention in prior studies of climate change and social inequality. The mortality rate of persons with disabilities in natural disasters is “up to four times higher than people without disabilities” (Stein and Stein 2021). How do the fast-moving shocks, flooding, drought, heatwaves and slower-moving social and economic effects of climate change impact persons with disabilities How can climate change adaptation efforts be disability inclusive This study examines these questions through original fieldwork and qualitative interviews conducted in Uzbekistan. In November 2022, the authors interviewed persons with disabilities in three regions of the country. The resulting qualitative data afford key insights into how climate change and disability status interact to generate distinct vulnerabilities. Within the nascent field of climate change and disability studies, this report represents one of the first fieldwork-based accounts of how climate change presents heightened risks to persons with disabilities in a developing country context.
Trade in Services for Development: Fostering Sustainable Growth and Economic Diversification

(Geneva, Switzerland: World Trade Organization, 2023-10-23) World Bank ; World Trade Organization (WTO)

The services sector has been the main source of economic growth in recent decades, with logistics, finance and information technologies playing an essential role in the functioning of modern economies while business services, healthcare and entertainment feature among the world’s fastest growing sectors. This publication — co-published by the WTO and the World Bank — underlines the contribution that trade and investment in services can make to economic growth and development and highlights, in particular, the importance of re-energizing international cooperation on services trade.
The Trends in Adolescent and Youth Well-being in the United Republic of Tanzania: Harnessing the Potential of Adolescents and Youth in Tanzania

(Washington, DC, 2023-10-19) World Bank

This report focuses on the trends of adolescent and youth well-being in Tanzania, identifying how and why well-being has or has not changed over time. The report conceptualizes well-being holistically. Well-being can be defined as one’s ability and opportunity to learn, make decisions, live a healthy life (physically and mentally), be well-nourished, express agency, have peace of mind, and ultimately be economically empowered. Well-being can be accumulated over time and is a composite of multiple aspects that affect the life one lives and the quality of that life. In many ways, how to live a good life and whether one is living this good life has been a key question asked across countries, and there are multiple frameworks that have been used to measure well-being. For the purposes of this study, six domains of well-being are recognized: (1) education and learning, (2) bodily integrity, (3) health, (4) psychological well-being (peace), (5) voice and agency, and (6) economic empowerment and skills. These domains are interconnected, and, also considered is the idea of peace of mind, without which, there is no wellness.
Data Diagnostic for Kerala - Spotlight on Resilience: Action plan based on a rapid diagnostic of data governance in the State of Kerala

(Washington, D.C., 2023-10-17) World Bank

The Government of Kerala (GoK) is committed to using data-driven tools and services for resilience and has embarked upon several innovative data programs that address known gaps in the resilience related service delivery architecture and the data ecosystem. The World Bank, through the ongoing Additional Financing for Resilient Kerala Program (P177980) is supporting the GoK in its efforts to use data effectively for resilience towards future disasters. At the invitation of the GoK, a World Bank team conducted a rapid diagnostic of the state of data governance in Kerala. The diagnostic aims to support the GoK in combining data initiatives related to climate change and disaster risk management into an integrated ecosystem of technology products and processes, as well as strengthen institutional mandates by enhancing data governance policies and creating incentives for data sharing. The findings of the rapid diagnostic suggest that a vibrant, innovative, and entrepreneurial data ecosystem for resilience exists within the GoK. The government and its partner agencies have developed and deployed several sophisticated resilience-related, data-driven tools, applications, and platforms. GoK however is unable to derive the full extent of benefits from these applications as most of these initiatives are not underpinned by a common set of standards, methods, and policies, leading to suboptimal citizen user experience and effectiveness. The data diagnostic of the data ecosystem of the State provides global and national benchmarking, identifies gaps and opportunity areas, and recommends five strategic action steps and a number of tactical action steps that GoK can take to strengthen data governance and demonstrate the value of data-driven initiatives. The diagnostic was carried out through secondary research and semi-structured interviews. The diagnostic team thanks the wide range of GoK stakeholders who readily agreed to be interviewed for the study, in particular the Kerala State IT Mission (KSITM) who was the main counterpart in developing the diagnostic.