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  • Publication
    Economic Monitoring Report to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee
    (Washington, DC, 2015-09-30) World Bank
    Palestinians are getting poorer on average for the third year in a row. As evidenced in previous World Bank reports, the competitiveness of the Palestinian economy has been progressively eroding since the signing of the Oslo accords, in particular its industry and agriculture. Even though donor aid had increased government-funded services and fueled consumption-driven growth during 2007 to 2011, this growth model has proved unsustainable. Donor support has significantly declined in recent years and, in any case, aid cannot sustainably make up for inadequate private investment. Thus, growth has started to slow since 2012 and the Palestinian economy contracted in 2014 following the Gaza war. In early 2015, GDP was still lower than it was a year ago. Due to population growth, real GDP per capita has been shrinking since 2013. Unemployment remains high, particularly amongst Gaza’s youth where it exceeds 60 percent, and 25 percent of Palestinians currently live in poverty. Against the backdrop of weak economic growth, reduced donor aid, and temporary suspension of revenue payments by the Government of Israel (GoI), the Palestinian Authority’s reform efforts have not been able to prevent another year with a financing gap. The persistence of this situation could potentially lead to political and social unrest. In short, the status quo is not sustainable and downside risks of further conflict and social unrest are high.
  • Publication
    Sudan: Rapid Assessment of the Public Investment Portfolio in the Fiscal Adjustment Context
    (Washington, DC, 2011-10) World Bank
    Public investment to facilitate growth and poverty reduction is paramount to Sudan's development challenge. The acute need for rebuilding the country's deteriorated infrastructure and service delivery framework underscores the importance of more active and effective public investment. The disproportional composition of the spending adjustment raises particular concern on pro-poor and public investment spending during the subsequent fiscal adjustment period expected to follow. Under the growing fiscal decentralization trend, the state governments have taken up the primary responsibility to provide basic public service deliveries to the poor; in such a decentralized constellation, reduced support from the federal budget could seriously jeopardize the provision of basic services at the state and locality level. In particular, public investment expenditure now has to effectively address service delivery needs and the broader development agenda, while at the same time the overall resource envelope is declining. This note is the result of a rapid assessment of Sudan's public investment portfolio in the context of the anticipated fiscal adjustment. It is not a full-fledged review on public investment projects or the public investment management system. The main scope of the assessment is: to quickly identify available information on public investment projects from existing sources; to provide an contextual overview of the overall public investment portfolio in light of the imminent needs for rationalizing the public investment portfolio; and to outline conceptual guidelines for public investment adjustments and to propose longer-term tasks to improve public investment management.
  • Publication
    West Bank and Gaza - Improving Governance and Reducing Corruption
    (World Bank, 2011-05-18) World Bank
    In the past decade, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has worked to strengthen economic governance and combat corruption, both essential to sustained economic growth and improved delivery of public services. This report finds the PA has made significant progress in its public institutions, establishing a strong governance environment in many critical areas. But it also identifies areas where reforms are underway but incomplete or, in some areas, not yet under consideration. Major reforms have been put in place to strengthen the PA's public financial management (PFM) systems and better manage its equity holdings, two crucial components in the public finance sector. In other important areas, such as public procurement, public sector employment, regulation of the private sector, and the work of anti-corruption institutions, reforms are underway but have not been fully implemented. This analysis relies on an understanding of the relationship between good economic governance, public service delivery, and corruption. Studies show a direct correlation between weak governance systems and the quality of public service delivery. Weak governance systems, in turn, provide an opportunity for corruption. The report does not attempt to investigate specific corruption activities or quantify the economic costs of corruption in West Bank and Gaza. Its purpose is to provide a comprehensive look at the current state of economic governance in the PA. It is the first report to comprehensively assess governance reforms, ascertain citizens' and officials' actual experiences with corruption in the delivery of public services, identify institutional strengths, and highlight systematic governance weaknesses which could lead to corruption.
  • Publication
    Egypt - Linking Funding to Outputs : Expenditures of the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation
    (World Bank, 2009-01-09) World Bank
    This review of the on-budget expenditure of the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MALR) in Egypt describes the broad outline of the MARL's expenditures and identifies key themes and issues. The report examines how the context of the agricultural sector has changed, and the adjustment challenge that such change poses for the MALR. It explains how the MALR is thinking about the future, describes the structures of the MALR, and presents expenditure trends for the MALR down to the sector or authority level. Also, the document identifies some key issues to be addressed and zooms in on the research institutions of the MALR, the Agricultural Research Centre and the Desert Research Centre.
  • Publication
    Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan - Institutional Financial Management Capacity Assessment (IFMCA) : Education and Social Development Sectors
    (Washington, DC, 2006-06) World Bank
    During the past decade, the Government of Jordan implemented a full-fledged adjustment program with continuous support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Economic growth during the last few years of the 1990s was over four percent, despite adverse external political factors. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth reached almost 5 percent in 2002, and was around 7 percent in 2004. Jordan graduated from the IMF program of support in July 2004. A World Bank report described Jordan as a star performer among emerging countries in terms of its structural reform achievements. In 2005, the government issued a ten-year strategic plan, the national agenda, which aimed to 'improve the quality of life of Jordanians through the creation of income-generating opportunities, the improvement of standards of living, and the guarantee of social welfare.' The plan set ambitious macroeconomic performance targets, to be achieved during the coming decade and clearly articulated performance measures to be used to monitor progress towards their achievement. The current Institutional Financial Management Capacity Assessment (IFMCA) selected two sectors the education and social development which are of importance to the Government of Jordan. Both sectors feature prominently in the government's recent national agenda and the Country Assistance Strategy (CAS). Both are being supported through a number of World Bank-supported projects and Economic Sector Works (ESWs).