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.

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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.
Traffic Management in African Cities: The Way Forward

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-01-31) Arroyo Arroyo, Fatima ; Frame, Gladys ; SSATP

This report explores how to establish important priorities in traffic management. It is neither a toolkit nor a quick fix; rather, it focuses on realistic options for traffic management policies and measures that can be used by local transport officials, international and national transport agencies, universities, and local entrepreneurs. Each theme explored in this report provides a roadmap and guidelines for traffic authorities to follow. The implementation of a Functional Road Hierarchy (FRH), for example, is animportant factor for determining the predominant function of a road within mixed functions, and achieving safe, efficient road use.This report also presents five separate and complementary themes that provide African policymakers with tools to develop a strongerinstitutional foundation for sustainable, safe, and affordable urban traffic management in Sub-Saharan African cities. Known as the “EASI” (Enable, Avoid, Shift, Improve) Framework, these themes emphasize a more people-centric approach to adopting non-motorized modes of transport and addressing parking challenges, while embracing Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) and technology to improve safety and efficiency across the board. See a comprehensive outline of the EASI principles below. The five themes are influenced by successful outcomes in European, South American, and Asian cities. These cities evolved in similar circumstances to Sub-Saharan African cities and crafted their own roadmaps to traffic management success. Moreover, these themes are entirely consistent with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11: “Making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.” The proposals also build on some measures that are currently evolving in a few Sub-Saharan African cities.
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.
Urban Mobility in African Cities: Developing National Urban Mobility Policy and Delivering at the City Level - Summary Report

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

African cities are growing at an extraordinary rate. Unfortunately, many cities are growing so fast that national, provincial, and city governments cannot manage how they develop or assure the provision of the services people need. This has many negative consequences for national and city economies and the people who live in these areas. Urban mobility is one of the key challenges for African cities. In many cities, the transport system has failed to keep up with urban growth. There is inadequate provision of dependable, affordable, and safe transport services to meet the travel needs of the people. Private vehicle ownership and use is increasing, congesting the roads. The informal sector provides much of the general transport service, using very large numbers of small vehicles. At the same time, the travel system impacts the city through congestion, increased costs, pollution, accidents, noise, intrusion, and long delays for both users and non-users. Cities cannot resolve these things alone. National Governments need to lead by guiding the development of cities, developing urban mobility policies, improving the implementation frameworks, and mobilizing finance. Critical to this strategy is ensuring city level capabilities are built to develop and implement locally appropriate strategies. The Africa Transport Policy Program (SSATP) aims to provide African decision-makers with the tools necessary to support the implementation of such policies and measures. Within this work, SSATP has developed guidance and prepared specific recommendations for urban mobility policy for 12 Sub-Saharan African countries. This note also provides a concise synthesis of the key issues and guidance, which can then be read in detail in the technical reports.
Shocks and Social Safety Net Program Participation in Ghana - Descriptive Evidence from Linking Climate Risk Maps to Programs Beneficiary Rolls

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-01-27) Nxumalo, Mpumelelo ; Raju, Dhushyanth

This study discusses the association between household exposure to negative shocks and social safety net program participation in Ghana. To examine this issue, we link data from high-resolution geospatial maps of drought and flood risks to government administrative data on safety net program beneficiaries at the district level. We find that drought risk is positively associated with household participation in selected, main public social safety net programs. (The corresponding evidence for flood risk is weaker.) We interpret the finding to be a result of pre-shock program coverage of drought-prone areas, in part achieved indirectly through the intentional targeting of poor areas by the programs.
Enhancing Sustainable and Inclusive Growth in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022) World Bank ; International Monetary Fund

The Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) authorities had been trying to set in motion a process to address the root cause of the region’s vulnerability - a largely undiversified economic basis overly dependent on oil. The CEMAC Commission had put in place a large-scale strategy of CEMAC economic and financial reform (PREF). This plan defines a set of reforms, organized around five pillars, to create the basis for more diversified, inclusive, private sector - led growth and enhanced governance of the public sector. Initial measures focused on engaging in closer financial relationships with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other development partners. As the first generation of IMF-supported programs are ending, and most CEMAC countries have benefited from the IMF’s sizable emergency financing to cope with the social and economic fallout of the COVID-19 crisis, the next step is to identify key reforms that will underpin second-generation programs to boost progress on the PREF and focus on addressing growth bottlenecks. This note responds to this need. It highlights a set of priority reforms at the national and regional levels that can guide the second generation of IMF programs and support the objective of putting CEMAC on a more sustained and inclusive path.
Innovation in Fare Payment Systems for Public Transport in African Cities

(Washington, DC, 2022-01) Arroyo Arroyo, Fatima ; Van Ryneveld, Philip Clive ; Finn, Brendan ; Greenwood, Karin Chantal ; Coetzee, Gerhardus Koch

This study of African fare payment systems seeks to understand the emerging payment landscape in public transport in Sub-Saharan Africa, identifying key trends and their implications. The research draws on case studies undertaken in five African cities—Cape Town,Kigali, Lagos, Maputo and Nairobi—selected to cover a variety of contexts, innovations and language regions. A sixth case is included from India, identified through a wider international scan and which embodies some significant innovations relevant to the African context.