Other ESW Reports

303 items available

Permanent URI for this collection

https://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 303

Green Competitiveness in Ethiopia: An Overview of How Environmental and Climate Factors Increasingly Shape Ethiopia's Economic Outlook in Selected Value Chains
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-11-12) World Bank
Environmental and climate factors play an increasing role in shaping Ethiopia’s economic competitiveness, and this report aims to provide an overview of these shifts. This novel report is a high-level assessment of how certain factors could affect Ethiopia’s economic competitiveness: (i) supply side impacts of climate change and environmental degradation, and (ii) demand-side changes caused by a growing number of sustainability requirements in key export markets, notably sustainability regulations and decisions by international buyers. Concentrating on four sectors that are both critical to Ethiopia’s economy and exposed to environmental and climate factors - coffee, textiles and garments, cut flowers, and aviation - illustrates these shifts. The objective is to identify cross-cutting trends of how sustainability factors affect Ethiopia’s economic competitiveness, but the sector-specific angle helps identify pressing challenges that policy makers in Ethiopia need to address. Note that the selected sectors are used to illustrate the trends described in this report and do not imply a recommended prioritization. Many other sectors essential to Ethiopia’s green transformation are not discussed. Moreover, although the report acknowledges that social and environmental aspects are deeply intertwined, it does not cover topics such as occupational health and safety, inclusion, living wages, and gender rights. The assessment applies a mixed methods approach by drawing on insights from interviews with experts conducted online and in person in Ethiopia (conducted mainly between November 2023 and April 2024), analysis of trade and economic data, and an extensive literature review. This report underlines the macro criticality of green competitiveness for Ethiopia, embedded in the wider economic and political context.
State-Owned Enterprises (SOES) in Oman: Review of SOE Governance Practices
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-11-08) World Bank
This report is part of a World Bank review of State-owned Enterprise (SOE) governance practices in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries. The review is responding to the scarcity of data about such practices in the MENA region. It initially covers six countries, including: Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, and Tunisia. The objective of the reviews is to develop and disseminate knowledge about SOE governance in the interests of promoting continued SOE reforms in the region. This report provides an overview of the SOE landscape and history in Oman, followed by a review of key dimensions of SOE governance practices. This includes a review of the following dimensions: (i) The legal and regulatory frameworks for SOEs; (ii) State ownership arrangements; (iii) Performance management frameworks; (iv) SOE board structures and functioning; (v) Transparency and disclosure practices; (vi) Procurement policies and practices; and (vii) Climate reporting practices. The framework for the review is based on the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for SOE Corporate Governance and the World Bank’s Integrated SOE Framework (iSOEF).
The Effects of Regulating Platfom-based Work on Employment Outcomes: A Review of the Empirical Evidence
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-31) Alzate, David
This brief is developed as part of a series and provides an overview of the empirical evidence on the impacts of regulatory and worker protection interventions related to digital work platforms. The theoretical and economic rationales for protecting workers against the market failures that surround digital platform work are discussed in Stoterau (2024). Another brief describes the experiences in various countries in adopting labor regulations or legal classifications from the legal standpoint (Hatayama and Swistak 2024). We bring complementary evidence and guidance to policy makers by reviewing the empirical evidence on the effects of introducing regulations.
Gender Assessment of the Gambian Tourism Sector
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-30) World Bank
Tourism offers significant opportunities for women’s participation, entrepreneurship, and leadership compared to other sectors, but there are challenges to address. The gender assessment of the tourism sector in the Gambia documents gender disparities and key issues hindering women’s participation and earnings in tourism through the lens of employment, entrepreneurship, and leadership. The assessment also examines cross-cutting factors such as policy and institutional environment, education, and social norms, which impact women’s economic opportunities in the sector and influence their decision to enter and remain in the sector. Despite women showing strong interest in hospitality, reflected in higher enrollment rates than men in tourism and hospitality institutes, this is not translating into higher employment shares due to a combination of key supply- and demand-side barriers. In tourism entrepreneurial activities, most women-owned businesses face challenges in skills development, securing finance, accessing tourism segments and markets, and are further limited by a lack of infrastructure and testing labs. In terms of tourism education, while women are the majority of students in formal tourism programs, they largely lack the high-level and soft skills training needed for career progression, and the school primarily serves the workforce level in hospitality, pointing to an opportunity for new curriculum development in The Gambia. Key to supporting Gambian women in tourism will be to the creation of a safer work environment, better policies and strong enforcement.
Better Results through Learning and Adaptation for a Better World Bank Group: The FY24 Management Action Record
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-25) World Bank
Following the 2020 Management Action Record (MAR) reforms, World Bank Group (WBG) Management prepares an annual self-assessment of its progress toward implementing the full range of outstanding Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) evaluation recommendations. The purpose of the Management Action Record (MAR) assessment system is to support accountability, learning, and adaptation for the WBG’s implementation of recommendations from IEG evaluations. This report is built on information gathering and sharing with IEG. In turn, IEG reviews Management’s self-assessment to judge progress toward achieving the outcomes of active recommendations. The recommendations involve, among other things, actions to enhance operational modalities, inform risk taking, improve guidance for staff, and improve results measurement systems. As part of the accountability function of the MAR, both Management’s self-assessment and IEG’s review are discussed with the Committee on Development Effectiveness (CODE) annually. The 2024 Fiscal Year (FY24) MAR reports on progress in implementing 77 recommendations from 28 evaluations, with 32 new recommendations in the FY24 cycle.
Balancing Act: Political Economy and the Pursuit of Ambitious Carbon Pricing in Developing Countries
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-09-09) World Bank
This report provides practical insights into the political economy challenges and opportunities for advancing carbon pricing, drawing on the experiences of select countries, including those in the World Bank’s Partnership for Market Implementation (PMI). Such countries often face different socioeconomic, political, and institutional environments than high-income economies. The review combines findings from academic literature in economics and political science, interviews with stakeholders, and an original survey of carbon pricing experts and policymakers in developing countries, to extract meaningful insights into how policymakers navigate political economy challenges to promote carbon pricing in developing countries. The report does not deal with the adoption of the broader set of climate policies that may also support mitigation. The premise of this report is that carbon pricing can be an effective and cost-effective instrument, one that has increasingly attracted government interest as a key part of the climate policy toolkit. The target audience for this report is national and subnational policymakers and other interested stakeholders seeking practical insights on realworld approaches that have worked or failed when advancing carbon pricing. The report does not prescribe best practices or cover every possible circumstance. Instead, by examining current practices at each stage of carbon pricing development, it aims to inform and assist in efforts to implement carbon pricing.
Defueling Conflict Environment and Natural Resource Management as a Pathway to Peace: Executive Summary
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-08-20) World Bank
Fragile and conflict-affected situations (FCS), environmental degradation, and natural disasters are on the rise and threaten to reverse development gains. In the past decade, violent civil conflicts have tripled and the number of people living in proximity to conflict has nearly doubled, with forced displacement at a record high. The World Bank Group (WBG) Strategy for Fragility, Conflict and Violence (FCV) 2020–2025 marks a shift in the World Bank’s work in fragile and conflict situations, as it adopts a more holistic approach to prevention. The Strategy seeks to enhance the World Bank Group’s effectiveness in supporting countries’ efforts to address the drivers and impacts of FCV and strengthen their resilience, especially for their most vulnerable and marginalized populations. The FCV Strategy explicitly recognizes the importance of climate change as a driver of FCV and as a threat multiplier, as well as the need to address the environmental impacts and drivers of FCV. Delivering on this shift toward preventing conflict underscores the importance of understanding the role the environment and natural resources can have. This report seeks to build a strong narrative on the need for the World Bank Group to engage and invest in environment, natural resource management, and climate change resilience in FCV-affected situations. It further aims at facilitating the integration of a conflict-sensitive lens into World Bank operations and programs addressing natural resource degradation and climate change. The report is divided in six sections: Section 1 sets the Background, Context, and Approach; Section 2 describes the risks associated with the interplay between natural resources, climate change, fragility, and conflict across the conflict cycle; Section 3 connects those causal chains to the delivery of the FCV Strategy across its four pillars; Section 4 showcases a suite of options to improve conflict-sensitive project design and implementation; and Section 5 presents an annotated questionnaire that serves as a complementary tool to the report.
Bioeconomy Paraguay: Innovation and Economic Diversification
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-08-12) World Bank
This report aims to inform the Government of Paraguay about the economic potential of an innovative bioeconomy to diversify exports and create better jobs. There are a number of innovative, biobased sectors with significant growth potential globally and in Paraguay, that could contribute to Paraguay’s economic diversification. However, to build on this potential, Paraguay would need to expand its innovation capabilities to enter sectors such as bioplastics, biopharmaceuticals, forestry and wood, ecotourism and other ecosystem services, such as carbon markets for export. A wide range of products can be produced from wood, and wood pulp can serve as an alternative input material for textiles. Besides wood itself, the forests or plantations in which it grows can also provide non-wood forestry products such as cosmetics, biopharmaceuticals, or food additives. Paraguay can also expand its bioplastics production to take advantage of a global market that is expected to grow between 35–45% through 2027. In part, this is because large buyers, such as car manufacturers, have committed to purchase bioplastics. Further market opportunities are also evident in ecotourism and carbon financing, both fast-growing service industries with potential to contribute to conservation of natural capital assets.
Playbook for Enabling Civilian Drone Operations
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-08-09) Anderson, Edward; Ochoa, Catalina; Engelmann, Gregor; Guerin, David; Soesilo, Denise; Juskauskas, Tautvydas; Slater, Jonathan; Osman Ali, Aymen
Emerging economies worldwide are on the rise in terms of both rapidly growing economies and younger populations. The labor force across many countries is also doubling, with millions of young people seeking opportunities. Much of this growth focuses on Metropolitan areas in Africa, with most Africans expected to live in urban areas by 2035. Ensuring this growth is shared broadly will be a crucial challenge, as rural areas, home to most of the world’s poor, cannot be left behind. In Africa, only 34 percent of citizens live within 2km of an all-weather road compared to over 90 percent in East Asia. The visible results are higher costs for goods and services, long wait times for deliveries, reduced productivity of rural facilities, and fewer opportunities for rural citizens. Bridging the gap between urban and rural in a way that brings greater reach and resilience to hard-to-reach communities requires us to rethink how to deliver mobility and set up supply chains better. Drones provide an opportunity to overcome persistent infrastructure deficiencies and address the needs and demand for more specialized transport and logistics, digitalization, and other services. They can support delivery operations to smaller airfields and hard-to-reach communities and operations in more hazardous conditions. Enabling safe, efficient and scalable drone operations will require new infrastructure and policy and regulatory reforms, greater engagement with specialized private operators, cross-sectoral and cross-governmental collaboration, and the leveraging of different investment streams to deliver and ensure efficient use of opportunities afforded by drones. This guidebook brings together experiences and lessons learned from a range of initiatives and operations within the context of the African experience of drone operations. In doing so, it provides detailed guidance and recommendations regarding the needed infrastructure, regulations, and management approaches that underpin the establishment of enabling ecosystems conducive to drone operations anywhere internationally. The World Bank looks forward to working closely with governments, the private sector, and other Development Partners to unlock the lower skies and bring the region’s development visions to life.
Early Warning Systems in Fragility, Conflict, and Violence-affected Settings: Shielding Communities from Natural Hazards Amid Compounded Crises - World Bank White Paper for EWS Implementation in FCV Settings, 2024
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-07-26) World Bank; GFDRR
This study, led by the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) teams working on the Disaster-FCV Nexus thematic area and the Hydromet Services and Early Warning Systems thematic area, aims to contribute to GFDRR’s overarching objective: to help low- and middle income countries understand and reduce their vulnerability to natural hazards and climate change. More specifically, the purpose of this report is to provide valuable insights into the nuances of early warning systems (EWS) implementation within fragile, conflict, and violence (FCV)-affected contexts against growing natural hazards, offering practical recommendations and identifying entry points for enhancing stakeholder coordination, optimizing resource allocation, and fostering community resilience. It is aimed at development practitioners, especially World Bank staff, who work with communities and governments to enhance the scaling-up of EWS coverage to populations living in contexts affected by FCV.