Sector/Thematic Studies

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http://hdl.handle.net/10986/2110

Economic and Sectoral Work are original analytic reports authored by the World Bank and intended to influence programs and policy in client countries. They convey Bank-endorsed recommendations and represent the formal opinion of a World Bank unit on the topic. This set includes the sectoral and thematic studies which are not Core Diagnostic Studies. Other analytic and advisory activities (AAA), including technical assistance studies, are included in these sectoral/thematic collections.

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Building Code Checklist for Green Buildings

(Washington, DC, 2023-09-27) World Bank

Globally, buildings account for 37 percent of energy and process-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. With increasing urbanization and population growth, demand for energy will continue to increase faster than the supply of renewable energy. This means that increasing the efficiency of current energy use is critical to climate change mitigation efforts while also meeting the development requirement of growing economies. Regulations that can increase the energy efficiency of buildings and reduce the carbon footprint of buildings are thus vital to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and to achieving the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping the increase in average global temperature below 2°C. This checklist aims to facilitate a robust approach to reviewing green building provisions in building regulations by providing a discussion of fundamental green building components of building regulations, and a systematic approach to review green building provisions in regulations.
Assistive Technologies for Children with Disabilities in Inclusive and Special Schools in Indonesia

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-09-25) Hata, Anna ; Wang, Han ; Yuwono, Joko ; Nomura, Shinsaku

This empirical study of the Indonesian context aims to rigorously examine availability and usage of AT for children with disabilities. It reviews key challenges and support needed in both inclusive and special schools, focusing on teachers in primary and secondary education in Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (MoECRT). Key questions included: 1) What is the availability and use of AT for students with disabilities in schools in Indonesia? 2) In what ways can teachers, schools, and local and national stakeholders work together to promote equitable and quality learning through AT for children with disabilities? To answer these questions, this study employed a mixed method to enhance the validity and quality of evidence based analysis of AT for children with disabilities in Indonesia, including a national level teacher survey with over 2,000 teachers who participated voluntarily, focus group discussions with teachers, school principals and policy makers as well as an international review of practices on AT for children with disabilities to address the lack of previous studies in Indonesia.
Mobilizing Private Finance for Nature: A World Bank Group Paper on Private Finance for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-09-25) World Bank Group

Biodiversity and ecosystem services, or nature for short, underpin many aspects of economic activity and are deteriorating at an unprecedented level, with potentially far-reaching implications for economies worldwide. Sustained ecosystem damage can trigger regime shifts and generate systemic impacts on human well-being and economies. For example, the degradation of natural ecosystems has been associated with an increase in the probability of emerging infectious diseases. The COVID-19 pandemic is likely an example of how the disturbance of ecosystems can have systemic consequences. As biodiversity is often seen as a public and therefore open access good, its conservation, restoration, and sustainable use rely heavily on scarce public sector finance. Simultaneously, governments are spending vast amounts to promote economic activities that are potentially harmful to biodiversity. This paper argues that governments and regulators, supported by financial institutions and multilateral development banks (MDBs), hold the key to mobilizing private finance at the scale needed to transform the way we build, produce, and consume to protect nature while fostering sustainable poverty reduction. The analysis looks at two key approaches to mobilizing private finance for biodiversity. First, it assesses opportunities for financing green, that is, the financing of projects that contribute, or intend to contribute, to the conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of biodiversity and its services to people. Second, it looks at greening finance, that is, directing financial flows away from projects with negative impact on biodiversity and ecosystems to projects that mitigate negative impact, or pursue positive environmental impact as a co-benefit. Despite growing innovation in both categories, significant challenges to scaling up private finance remain. These include policies that exacerbate the underpricing of biodiversity; lack of data, measurement, and reporting standards; and issues with biodiversity investment opportunities, which tend to be small scale and noncommercial, making private sector financing a challenge. The paper provides a set of recommendations for governments, regulators, companies, financial institutions, and MDBs. These are synthesized into a set of big five approaches to mobilize private finance for biodiversity: environmental fiscal reforms to realign incentives with sustainable practices; national biodiversity data provision and planning; the establishment of a Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) to support biodiversity reporting; the establishment of a Nature Action 100 to drive change in the companies whose activities most threaten biodiversity; and the provision of catalytic, concessional capital for biodiversity funds and projects.
Valuing Green Infrastructure: A Case Study of the Vakhsh River Basin, Tajikistan

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-14) World Bank

This report outlines the main results of a study conducted to assess the potential role of landscape restoration/nature-based solutions/green infrastructure in the Vakhsh River Basin, Tajikistan, to reduce the impacts of soil erosion on the hydropower cascade, increase agricultural productivity, improve livelihoods, and inform about investment opportunities. This assessment finds sediment sources and loadings in the Vakhsh River Basin, considers the potential correlation between soil erosion and sedimentation in hydropower reservoirs, proposes possible and cost-effective landscape restoration measures, and estimates the value of ecosystem services provided. The study also presents recommendations for implementing the proposed interventions for the Vakhsh River Basin and for scaling up to other degraded areas throughout the country.
The Value of Pharmacovigilance in Building Resilient Health Systems Post-COVID: Overview Report

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-08-15) Wang,Huihui ; Marquez,Patricio V. ; Figueras Sune,Albert-Jesus ; Kseniya Bieliaieva

Although indispensable for improving health outcomes, medicines and vaccines or their administration and use can produce adverse effects, requiring continuous vigilance to ensure that the benefits outweigh the risks. Monitoring the safety of the use of marketed medicines and vaccines, also known as pharmacovigilance, should therefore become much more explicit in efforts to strengthen health systems and prepare for public health crises and normal times because the world is determined to build back better after the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of this report is to examine the importance of pharmacovigilance in a health system both during a health crisis and in normal times, describe the function, structure, and processes of a functional pharmacovigilance system, and explain the value of drug safety monitoring in building resilience in health systems post-COVID-19 pandemic.
Learning from the Republic of Korea: Building Health System Resilience

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-08-15) Wang, Huihui ; Hwang, Inuk ; Marquez, Patricio V.

The response of the government of the Republic of Korea to COVID-19 has been heralded as among the most successful. In the first two years of the pandemic, the government was able to keep the size of the outbreak relatively small and the death toll relatively low. Although the number of COVID-19 cases jumped significantly subsequently in 2022 and 2023 due to the spread of the more transmissible Omicron variant and a revamped testing regime that cast a broader net to detect infections, Korea had a much lower rate of total confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million population than other high income countries (676 in Korea, as compared to 3,379 in the United Kingdom, 3,331 in the United States, and 2,599 in France). The government achieved this relatively positive result without resorting to the highly restrictive measures that were adopted by most high-income countries, such as strictly controlling borders, shuttering businesses, or issuing severe lockdown or stay-at-home orders. Indeed, since the start of the outbreak in January 2020, the distinguishing features of the response in Korea include the government’s ability to mobilize swiftly, even in the early stages of the pandemic, to flatten the epidemic curve. This report dissects the COVID-19 countermeasures successfully adopted in Korea. The analysis draws out insights and lessons that may be relevant to other countries as they mount responses to ongoing crises and prepare for future public health emergencies.
Starting and Strengthening a National Pharmacovigilance System: The Case of Catalan Regional Activities that Propelled the Spanish Pharmacovigilance System

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-08-15) Wang, Huihui ; Marquez, Patricio V. ; Figueras, Albert ; Bieliaieva, Kseniya

The Spanish System of Pharmacovigilance (SSPV) started its activities almost 40 years ago, in 1985. Of particular interest to others considering various options for developing pharmacovigilance systems is the fact that this case study highlights an example that built from the ground up and actually started in academia: the SSPV began as a research project in a university institution in Catalonia that was later adopted by the Ministry of Health. From these origins, a regulatory framework gradually allowed this initiative to expand to the whole country. In 1990, after technical training for the professional staff involved, responsibility for coordinating the system was transferred to a specially created coordinating center for the SSPV located in the Spanish Medicines Agency. This report reviews the origins of the system and its key features, followed by two examples of the system in action and closing comments on aspects and lessons that may be of particular value to others developing pharmacovigilance systems elsewhere.
Safety Monitoring of Medicines and Vaccines: A Situation Analysis

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-08-15) Wang, Huihui ; Figueras, Albert ; Marquez, Patricio V. ; Bieliaieva, Kseniya

Medicines, vaccines, medical devices, and blood are commonly used to treat disease. Medicines deserve a special focus because almost any medical visit ends with at least one prescription. So, monitoring the safety and effectiveness of therapeutic treatments and procedures is crucial at both the individual and community levels. In the case of medicines and vaccines, this surveillance activity is known as pharmacovigilance. Various methods are used to monitor the adverse and unwanted effects of medicinal products after they have received authorization for marketing, but reporting adverse reactions is the most widespread. The network of the Program for International Drug Monitoring (PIDM), which is supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), involves more than 170 countries. Its activities were initiated in 1968. The WHO-PIDM is the world’s most comprehensive network involving health professionals, patients, and manufacturers. This situation analysis describes relevant aspects of the PIDM, including achievements and weak points. The analysis is the product of a systematic revision of studies that focus on the WHO-PIDM activities and related findings published in different medical journals and listed in PubMed. Available information was selected and organized according to different topics and summarized and presented in the different sections of the report. As information for some countries and regions is lacking in the available literature, the report is not a comprehensive review of the pharmacovigilance across countries. The report, therefore, shows what is in place and highlight some of the difficulties faced by many countries, particularly low-and-middle income countries. It offers an overview of the (1) common points and failures; (2) the advantages of a national PV system; (3) the difficulties in scaling up and consolidating these systems; and (4) the advantages of regional collaboration. This report is part of a series of companion reports on pharmacovigilance, that provide a detailed overview and discussion on technical aspects and country and regional experiences.
Overview of the Republic of Korea Pharmacovigilance System: Learning from Best Practices

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-08-15) Wang, Huihui ; Marquez, Patricio V. ; Figueras, Albert ; Bieliaieva, Kseniya

Building capacity in countries to conduct thorough surveillance of the use of all newly authorized drugs and vaccines, both brand name and generic, is a critical “public good” investment to ensure that drugs work correctly and that their health benefits outweigh their known risks. Korea’s pharmacovigilance system (PVS) is an international best practice. It is the result of a continuous and sustained government effort over the past three decades—from small pilot projects to a nationwide monitoring network—and offers valuable lessons to other countries on the vital role that such a system can play in ensuring the safety of drugs post-marketing. This report provides an overview of the Korean pharmacovigilance system, describing its main structural and operational elements, to monitor the safety and effectiveness of medicines. It draws from a review of available literature in journal articles, as well as from the websites and reports of Korean institutions.
Pharmacovigilance in Brazil: Creating an Effective System in a Diverse Country

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-08-15) Wang, Huihui ; Figueras, Albert ; Marquez, Patricio V. ; Bieliaieva, Kseniya

The ability to oversee and monitor the use of all newly authorized drugs and vaccines, both brand name and generic, is critical to ensure that they work correctly and that their health benefits outweigh their known risks when used in daily clinical practice. This process, known as pharmacovigilance, plays a vital role in ensuring that patients receive appropriate vaccines and medicines that are safe and effective. While this may seem obvious, the process of building the necessary capacity and even recognition of the importance of this work has taken decades. Brazil is a particularly notable example because it ranks in the top five amongst the largest and the most populated countries—two characteristics that difficult the deployment and consolidation of a pharmacovigilance system.