World Bank Working Papers
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World Bank Working Papers present the results of economic, financial, or technical research; country experience or analysis; operational evaluations; or detailed background or case studies. These are typically works in progress, published to stimulate public discussion of ongoing research. These books tend to be short, ranging typically between 64 and 128 pages in length. This series was superseded by the World Bank Studies series in 2011 [see Books - Series (active)]. Smaller, chapter-sized articles can be found in the Policy Research Working Papers collection.
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Publication WBG COVID-19 Crisis Response Operational Update: Delivering on the WBG Twin Goals in an Era of Compounding Crises(Washington, DC, 2022-03-31) World BankThis note provides an update on the WBG’s COVID-19 Crisis Response, outlined in June 2020 to help developing countries address the impacts of the pandemic while maintaining a line of sight to long-term development goals. It comprises five short sections: (I) the impacts of COVID-19 and compounding crises on developing countries, (II) an update on the WBG’s operational crisis response and priorities moving forward, (III) the critical role of international coordination, (IV) WBG financing framework for GRID, and (V) concluding remarks.Publication Structured Lesson Plans for Literacy Instruction: A Compendium of Global Resources - A Collection of Early-Grade Teaching and Learning Materials in 40+ Languages(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-03-31) World BankLiteracy is the cornerstone of education, and a driver of human economic, social, and civic wellbeing. Despite its importance, far too many children fail to become literate. The World Bank uses a measure called learning poverty to indicate when a child cannot read and understand an age-appropriate text by age ten. The best available data showed that more than two-thirds of children in low- and middle-income countries suffer learning poverty. The World Bank is committed to helping countries achieve the learning target: to cut learning poverty by at least half by 2030. Achieving better outcomes in literacy requires a comprehensive effort in many domains. One of the most important is ensuring that students and teachers have and use high-quality instructional materials, especially textbooks, for reading instruction. As countries and systems review their literacy teaching and learning materials, they will want to compare them to the materials from other countries and systems. The purpose of the compendium is to allow such reviews and comparisons by grouping a critical mass of structured pedagogy lesson plans and related materials in one place.Publication World - Climate Services Operational Pathways: Pathways for Transforming Weather, Water, and Climate Services in Mozambique(Washington, DC, 2022-01-28) World BankThis study was commissioned by climate investment funds (CIF’s) E and L initiative to distill lessons from CIF’s pilot program on climate resilience (PPCR) support in identifying, designing, and implementing hydrometeorological and climate services investments. It seeks to generate learning and strategic insight into the different operational pathways that can be taken by national hydrological and meteorological services to develop, deliver, and strengthen hydrometeorological and climate services. The outputs from the study comprise of one synthesis report and three country studies for Jamaica, Mozambique, and Nepal. These three countries have been selected for the study due to their different institutional frameworks, hydrometeorological systems, and socio-economic context. They provide diverse in-depth insights in hydrometeorological and climate service development, delivery and use. In this respect, the PPCR-supported Climate Resilience: Transforming Hydrometeorological Services Project was selected as a case study project for Mozambique. It elucidates lessons learned on the process for modernizing hydrometeorological systems and delivering climate services to users. Furthermore, it offers insight into challenges and opportunities for climate services development, delivery, and use in Southern African developing countries. Qualitative methods, including structured interviews and literature review, were used to identify promising pathways to continue to transform weather, water, and climate services in the three case study countries. In Mozambique, the analysis of the data collected revealed six themes regarding critical pathways to transform weather, water, and climate services in the country. These are: harmonizing and integrating data resources; improving hydrometeorological and climate service design and delivery; fostering hydrometeorological and climate services impact through user feedback; building appropriate human capacity; strengthening national coordination; and promoting regional collaboration. The report summarizes key findings.Publication Assessing Incentives to Increase Digital Payment Acceptance and Usage: A Machine Learning Approach(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-01-18) Allen, Jeff; Carbo Valverde, Santiago; Chakravorti, Sujit; Rodriguez-Fernandez, Francisco; Pinar Ardic, OyaAn important step to achieve greater financial inclusion is to increase the acceptance and usage of digital payments. Although consumer adoption of digital payments has improved dramatically globally, the acceptance and usage of digital payments for micro, small, and medium-sized retailers (MSMRs) remain challenging. Using random forest estimation, The authors identify 14 key predictors out of 190 variables with the largest predictive power for MSMR adoption and usage of digital payments. Using conditional inference trees, they study the importance of sequencing and interactions of various factors such as public policy initiatives, technological advancements, and private sector incentives. The authors find that in countries with low point of sale (POS) terminal adoption, killer applications such as mobile phone payment apps increase the likelihood of P2B digital transactions. They also find the likelihood of digital P2B payments at MSMRs increases when MSMRs pay their employees and suppliers digitally. The level of ownership of basic financial accounts by consumers and the size of the shadow economy are also important predictors of greater adoption and usage of digital payments. Using causal forest estimation, they find a positive and economically significant marginal effect for merchant and consumer fiscal incentives on POS terminal adoption on average. When countries implement financial inclusion initiatives, POS terminal adoption increases significantly and MSMRs’ share of person-to-business (P2B) digital payments also increases. Merchant and consumer fiscal incentives also increase MSMRs’ share of P2B electronic payments.Publication Psychometric Considerations for Implementing Phone-Based Learning Assessments(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022) Luna-Bazaldua, Diego; Levin, Victoria; Khurana, AishwaryaThe Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a significant impact on education worldwide, affecting whether and how students learn. World Bank estimates and initial analysis at the country level indicate that school closures and interruptions to in-person education are likely to negatively impact student learning. Moreover, these estimates predict that students in low- and middle-income countries will suffer from more significant learning losses than students in high-income countries, worsening the existing global learning crisis. As part of their education response to the pandemic, many countries have provided learning content to students at home through various means, including through the internet via devices such as computers, tablets, and smartphones, as well as through television, radio, printed materials, and feature (basic) phones. With schools closed, teachers have also had to adapt to using these different media to continue their teaching. So, phone-based assessment solutions can be used for at least two purposes. The first purpose is to conduct formative assessment, for example to gauge how well students have absorbed the learning content, identify any misconceptions in understanding, provide constructive feedback to students or caregivers, and offer additional learning resources and activities to support learning. The second purpose is to conduct impact evaluations, for example analyzing the effect on student learning outcomes of interventions introduced in response to the pandemic.Publication Survey on the Implementation of the Cape Town Global Action Plan for Sustainable Development Data(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-01) World Bank; UNSD; Paris21Since its launch in January 2017 at the first UN World Data Forum in South Africa, and its formal adoption by the United Nations Statistical Commission at its forty-eighth session in March 2017, the Cape Town Global Action Plan for Sustainable Development Data (CTGAP) has provided a framework for planning and implementing the statistical capacity building activities needed to achieve the scope and intent of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development, and to mobilize funding for the modernization of national statistical systems across the world. However, when the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic hit the world in early 2020, national statistical authorities and the international statistical community inevitably shifted their attention to the immediate challenge of ensuring the continuity of the most basic statistical operations, and to addressing new, urgent data demands. As a consequence, significant resources were diverted away from longer-term initiatives aimed at achieving the shared goals crystallized in the commitment and vision of the CTGAP. This report presents the results of a survey conducted by the World Bank, the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), and PARIS21, with the aim to inform actions by decision makers and international partners to implement, monitor, and finance the CTGAP. This last survey was launched with the purpose of seeing beyond the immediate crisis, and to ensure that the current constraints do not distract attention from the common goals enshrined in the 2030 agenda for sustainable development and the implementation of the CTGAP.Publication Teach Primary: Observer Manual(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2022) World BankTeach is an open access classroom observation tool that provides a window into one of the less explored and most important aspects of student learning, what goes on in the classroom. The tool has been designed to help countries track and improve teaching quality. In 2020-2021, the Teach Primary tool underwent a review and revision process to strengthen the way it captures inclusive teaching practices. Since its launch, Teach Primary has been used to support the way countries track and improve teaching practices, adapted to each country’s context and needs. This checklist is a proposed addition to be used together with the Teach Primary classroom observation tool; while its use together with the classroom observation component is suggested, it is not mandatory. The aim of the checklist is to assess additional elements related to educational quality, including but not limited to the accessibility of the physical environment. Items indicated with an asterisk are to be asked to the teacher.Publication The Behavioral Professional: Improving Decision-Making and Performance in the Public Sector(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2022) Lourenço, Joana S.; Vakis, Renos; Zoratto, LauraOver the past decade, governments, multilateral organizations, and think tanks have been increasingly using behavioral science as an additional tool to understand and tackle complex policy challenges in several sectors. Yet despite this increase in the use of behavioral science for policy design, little attention has been given so far to those individuals responsible for designing and implementing public policies and programs: policy professionals. This note aims to achieve three objectives. first, it highlights recent examples building on work done by the eMBeD team and the World Bank at large on how behavioral bottlenecks can hinder key development goals, from ensuring inclusive and equitable education for all (SDG4) to ensuring good health and well-being (SDG3), among others. Second, the note presents a behavioral framework highlighting the individual, group and institutional contexts that affect policy professionals. Finally, it showcases the relevance of the behavioral approach to a broad range of areas - including public service design, corruption and accountability, service design, access and delivery, civil servants’ performance - by pinpointing common bottlenecks faced, and potential solutions to overcome them.Publication Opening Opportunities, Closing Gaps: Advancing Gender-Equal Benefits in Clean Cooking Operations(Washington, DC, 2022) World BankAt the current rate of ambition, the world will fall short of achieving sustainable development goal 7 (SDG 7) by 2030. Slow progress toward access to clean cooking solutions has significant negative impacts on women (for example, harm to health from disproportionate exposure to household air pollution (HAP); safety hazards and risks to well-being; and the opportunity costs of fuelwood collection, fuel preparation, and inefficient cooking). To accelerate the transition to clean cooking by 2030, the World Bank’s energy sector management assistance program (ESMAP) has established the United States (U.S.) 500 million dollars clean cooking fund (CCF). The success of such initiatives and future programs can be enhanced by gaining a greater appreciation of the gender gaps in clean cooking and heating operations and knowledge about how to bridge them. This report introduces World Bank task teams and other practitioners to the key arguments, opportunities, and practical steps for integrating gender considerations into clean cooking programs. Part one presents the supporting arguments that recognize women as both beneficiaries and agents of change. Part two stimulates task teams to think more broadly about the possible opportunities for advancing gender equality across the value chain, drawing on the rich experience of the World Bank’s active lending portfolio, as well as best-case practices from private-sector initiatives and the literature on clean cooking and gender. Based on lessons from these empirical findings, part three suggests practical steps for tailoring projects to the distinct needs of women and men and thus increasing the likelihood of: (i) reducing gaps in asset ownership and human endowments, and (ii) capitalizing on growth opportunities.Publication The Impact of COVID-19 on Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from High Frequency Phone Survey from The Gambia - First Quarterly Report (March 2021)(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2021-12-23) World BankThe report describes the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on labor market outcomes for theGambia and finds evidence that the initial effects of the pandemic on employment were large.