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419 items available

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https://hdl.handle.net/10986/5996

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Power in Perseverance: Understanding the Journey of Women Entrepreneurs in Yemen
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-06-03) World Bank
In Yemen, women and girls face multiple obstacles that hinder progress toward gender equality and limit their economic participation. The ongoing conflict has devastated the lives, health, and economic prospects of ordinary Yemenis, and deepened vulnerabilities, especially for women and girls. However, global experience has shown that women often take on the role of head of household and actively participate in income-generating activities during times of crisis. A similar trend has reportedly been seen in Yemen, with women starting new businesses since the start of the conflict and having more say in household decision making. Despite this, Yemeni women still face societal expectations and restrictive norms that limit their mobility and interactions in public life. This study analyzes factors that enable or constrain Yemeni women to participate in economic activities during a period of protracted conflict. The study uses in-depth interviews and photo documentary to portray the journeys of 24 female entrepreneurs from four governorates in Yemen who have persevered with their businesses. The team subsequently coded and analyzed all interviews to search for common themes and emerging patterns. The study focuses on a niche group of women who have started enterprises in a country where the female labor force participation is low. The study uncovers critical insights into understanding their needs and aspirations to pave an enabling environment. This study, while small, can be used to inform findings relevant to (i) this group of women, (ii) other women living in other parts of Yemen, (iii) other women living in similar contexts of protracted conflict, and (iv) generations of women to come in these contexts. The study found that interviewed female entrepreneurs face a web of intertwined factors that act as facilitators and barriers at the individual and household, enterprise and market, formal institutions, and informal institutions levels.
Yemen Economic Monitor, Fall 2023: Peace on the Horizon?
(Washington, DC, 2023-11-08) World Bank
The Yemen Economic Monitor provides an update on key economic developments and policies over the past six months. It also presents findings from recent World Bank work on Yemen. The Monitor places these developments, policies, and findings in a longer-term and global context and assesses their implications for Yemen’s outlook. Its coverage ranges from the macro economy to financial markets to human welfare and development indicators. It is intended for a wide audience, including policy makers, development partners, business leaders, financial market participants, and the community of analysts and professionals engaged in Yemen.
The Long Road to Inclusive Institutions in Libya: A Sourcebook of Challenges and Needs
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-05-18) Irhiam, Hend R.; Schaeffer, Michael G.; Watanabe, Kanae
Facing a challenging transition process, Libya stands to profit from a reconstruction strategy and a vision that bring the country together. Investment decisions will have to be based on the analysis of alternative short-, medium-, and long-term interventions and the sequencing of related reforms, all while considering the realities on the ground. A stable Libya will carry substantive positive spill-over effects for neighboring countries and beyond. If sustainable peace and stability are to take hold, Libya’s partners must stay the course, sustain engagement, and support Libya’s efforts to rebuild equitably and inclusively. The Long Road to Inclusive Institutions in Libya: A Sourcebook of Challenges and Needs is a rich compilation of analytical work on Libya’s sector dynamics and reform choices. The content was developed in partnership with 60 contributors from nine institutions. The book’s 21 chapters address institutional transformation, reflect on the conflict’s impact on the economy, and outline the consequences of the conflict on people and services. The book demonstrates that even in challenging circumstances, one can contribute to the development of a near- and medium-term vision for a political, economic, and socially inclusive Libya while acknowledging the need to adapt as the circumstances evolve. Utilizing a number of analytical techniques (including phone surveys and nighttime data), the authors make a unique contribution to the discussion of Libya’s medium- to long-term challenges for readers in government, civil society, and academia.
The Economics of Water Scarcity in the Middle East and North Africa: Institutional Solutions
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2023-04-26) de Waal, Dominick; Khemani, Stuti; Barone, Andrea; Borgomeo, Edoardo
Despite massive infrastructure investments, countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region continue to face unprecedented water scarcity due to climate change, population growth, and socioeconomic development. Current policy regimes for managing water across competing needs are primarily determined by state control of large infrastructure. Policy makers across the region understand the unsustainability of water allocations and that increasing investments in new infrastructure and technologies to increase water supply place a growing financial burden on governments. However, standard solutions for demand management—reallocating water to higher value uses, reducing waste, and increasing tariffs—pose difficult political dilemmas that, more often than not, are left unresolved. Without institutional reform, the region will likely remain in water distress even with increased financing for water sector infrastructure.The Economics of Water Scarcity in the Middle East and North Africa: Institutional Solutions confronts the persistence and severity of water scarcity in MENA. The report draws on the tools of public economics to address two crucial challenges facing states in MENA: lack of legitimacy and trust. Evidence from the World Values Survey shows that people in the region believe that a key role of government is to keep prices down and that governments are reluctant to raise tariffs because of the risk of widespread protests. Instead of avoiding the “politically sensitive” issue of water scarcity, this report argues that reform leaders and their external partners can reform national water institutions and draw on local political contestation to establish a new social contract. The crisis and emotive power of water in the region can be used to bolster legitimacy and trust and build a sustainable, inclusive, thriving economy that is resilient to climate change.
A New State of Mind: Greater Transparency and Accountability in the Middle East and North Africa
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2022-10-05) Belhaj, Ferid; Gatti, Roberta; Lederman, Daniel; Sergenti, Ernest John; Lotfi, Rana; Mousa, Mennatallah Emam; Assem, Hoda
The MENA region is facing important vulnerabilities, which the current crises—first the pandemic, then the war in Ukraine—have exacerbated. Prices of food and energy are higher, hurting the most vulnerable, and rising interest rates from the global tightening of monetary policy are making debt service more burdensome. Part I explores some of the resulting vulnerabilities for MENA. MENA countries are facing diverging paths for future growth. Oil Exporters have seen windfall increases in state revenues from the rise in hydrocarbon prices, while oil importers face heightened stress and risk—from higher import bills, especially for food and energy, and the depreciation of local currencies in some countries. Part II of this report argues that poor governance, and, in particular, the lack of government transparency and accountability, is at the root of the region’s development failings—including low growth, exclusion of the most disadvantaged and women, and overuse of such precious natural resources as land and water.
Unlocking Sustainable Private Sector Growth in the Middle East and North Africa: Evidence from the Enterprise Survey
(Luxembourg City: European Investment Bank; London: European Bank for Reconstruction and Development; Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022) World Bank; European Bank for Reconstruction and Development; European Investment Bank
Economic growth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has been weak since the global financial crisis of 2007-09 and the Arab Spring of the early 2010s. Achieving higher and sustainable growth is particularly important in view of other economic challenges facing the region: public debt in MENA countries has increased considerably over the last decade, accompanied by declining investment. This report seeks to understand what lies beneath that relatively slow growth, with a particular focus on the reasons for stagnating productivity and inadequate accumulation of human capital and physical capital in the region’s private sector. To this end, the report summarizes the main findings from nine background papers based on enterprise survey data. It also draws conclusions for policy, not only for promoting stronger firm performance, but also for addressing the challenge of climate change by pursuing sustainable growth.
The World Bank Annual Report 2022: Helping Countries Adapt to a Changing World
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2022) World Bank
The Annual Report is prepared by the Executive Directors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA)--collectively known as the World Bank--in accordance with the by-laws of the two institutions. The President of the IBRD and IDA and the Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors submit the Report, together with the accompanying administrative budgets and audited financial statements, to the Board of Governors.
Distributional Impacts of COVID-19 in the Middle East and North Africa Region
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2021-11-22) Hoogeveen, Johannes G.; Lopez-Acevedo, Gladys; Hoogeveen, Johannes G.; Lopez-Acevedo, Gladys
COVID-19 is one of multiple crises to have hit the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in the decade following the Arab Spring. War, oil price declines, economic slowdowns and now a pandemic are tearing at the social fabric of a region characterized by high rates of unemployment, high levels of informality and low annual economic growth. The economic costs of the pandemic are estimated at about $227 billion, and fiscal support packages across MENA are averaging 2.7 percent of GDP, putting pressure on already weak fiscal balances and making a quick recovery challenging. Pre-pandemic MENA was the only region in the world experiencing increases in poverty and declines in life satisfaction. This Report investigates how COVID-19 changed the welfare of individuals and households in the region. It does so by relying on phone surveys implemented across the region and complements these with micro-simulation exercises to assess the impact of COVID-19 on jobs, income, poverty and inequality. The two approaches perform a complementary task by corroborating each other’s results, thereby making the findings more robust and richer. This Report’s results show that in the short run, poverty rates in MENA will increase significantly, and that inequality will widen. A group of “new poor” is likely to emerge that may have difficulty to recover from the economic consequences of the pandemic. The Report adds value by analyzing newly gathered primary data, along with projections based on newly modelled micro-macro simulations and by identifying key issues that policy makers should focus on to enable a quick, inclusive and sustained economic recovery.
Overconfident: How Economic and Health Fault Lines Left the Middle East and North Africa Ill-Prepared to Face COVID-19
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2021-10-07) Fan, Rachel Yuting; Gatti, Roberta; Hatefi, Arian; Lederman, Daniel; Sax, Joseph Martin; Nguyen, Ha; Wood, Christina A.; Sautmann, Anja
This report examines the region’s economic prospects in 2021, forecasting that the recovery will be both tenuous and uneven as per capita GDP level stays below pre-pandemic levels. COVID-19 was a stress-test for the region’s public health systems, which were already overwhelmed even before the pandemic. Indeed, a decade of lackluster economic reforms left a legacy of large public sectors and high public debt that effectively crowded out investments in social services such as public health. This edition points out that the region’s health systems were not only ill-prepared for the pandemic, but suffered from over-confidence, as authorities painted an overly optimistic picture in self-assessments of health system preparedness. Going forward, governments must improve data transparency for public health and undertake reforms to remedy historical underinvestment in public health systems.
The World Bank Annual Report 2021: From Crisis to Green, Resilient, and Inclusive Recovery
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2021-10-01) World Bank
The Annual Report is prepared by the Executive Directors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA)--collectively known as the World Bank--in accordance with the by-laws of the two institutions. The President of the IBRD and IDA and the Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors submits the Report, together with the accompanying administrative budgets and audited financial statements, to the Board of Governors.