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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Sierra Leone Economic Update 2022: Leveraging SME Financing and Digitization for Inclusive Growth

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-05-31) World Bank

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has set back the economy and fiscal balances of Sierra Leone, which are now further impacted by the war in Ukraine. Real gross domestic product (GDP) growth turned negative in 2020, while the government’s efforts to reduce the fiscal deficit were undermined by the need for emergency spending. Just when the economy began to recover, the war in Ukraine caused new disruption through sharply higher food and fuel prices. Thus, the authorities face both the short-term challenge of coping with these price shocks while recovering from the pandemic, and the medium-term challenge of renewing fiscal consolidation and promoting higher economic growth. Public finances have deteriorated since the onset of COVID-19. Inflationary pressures have accelerated since mid-2021, driven first by the post-pandemic rebound in consumption, and subsequently by global supply chain disruptions since the onset of the Ukraine war, and depreciation pressures on the Leone. Small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) can be engines of economic growth and job creation,under the right circumstances. Currently, in Sierra Leone, SMEs (along with micro-enterprises) provide livelihoods to approximately 70 percent of the population and represent over 90 percent of the domestic private sector. Access to finance for SMEs and digital finance are priorities for the government. Digital financial services (DFS) are not diversified, and mobile money remains the main driver. The payments infrastructure including the RTGS, ACH and securities settlement system needs to be upgraded. Sierra Leone lacks a modern credit reporting system. Key recommendations for greater SME access to finance are presented in this report.
Building a Responsive and Resilient Vocational Education and Training System in Benin

(Washington, DC, 2022-05) World Bank

Benin has embarked on an ambitious reform of rapid expansion of its technical and vocational education training (TVET) sector with the goal, among others, to increase enrollment tenfold by 2030. Investments in the Benin’s human development are important to support the government’s economic growth objectives. A specific area of focus and one that has received support from the very highest levels of government is the focus on skills development and TVET. The government has put in place significant reforms to support this subsector with the aim to increase the skills base of the Beninese workforce and the population more generally, to enhance the coordination and functioning of the sector, to strengthen sectoral and institutional governance, and to improve system efficiency and relevance of programs to the needs of the labor market. The objective of this policy note is to inform the ongoing TVET reforms. The note assesses the effectiveness of the TVET system in Benin and provides policy recommendations for improvements. This policy note also presents a perspective on the plans to rapidly expand the sector, drawing on the experience of other economies including high-growth East Asian countries, and considers global trends, technological advances, climate change, and structural challenges, including the high level of informal employment and gender inequality. The report is organized into five chapters. Chapter one presents background information outlining opportunities, challenges, and reforms in the Benin TVET system. Chapter two provides broader analysis of the TVET system in Benin. Chapter three analyzes the recent developments and reforms to system of governance and financing. While chapter four assesses the quality assurance (QA) system in TVET, chapter five summarizes the key reform options and policy recommendations.
Toward More People-Centered Service Delivery: Opportunities for the National ID System in Lesotho

(Washington, DC, 2022-05) World Bank

This note documents the current and emerging use cases for the national ID (NID) system in the Kingdom of Lesotho. It demonstrates considerable potential and progress to date, and makes recommendations for moving toward a more inclusive, trusted and service delivery-oriented NID system. Global experience has shown that national ID systems can promote more efficient, transparent and people-centered service delivery in the public and private sectors, particularly when the system is designed with the appropriate enablers and safeguards in place to support improved development outcomes and mitigate risks. As countries move toward digital economies and governance, ID systems often serve as an essential digital platform, underpinning the digital payment infrastructure and transactions, as well as the provision of online and offline government services.
Closing Gaps, Increasing Opportunities: A Diagnostic on Women’s Economic Empowerment in Nigeria

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-03-03) World Bank

As Nigeria faces the immediate challenge of stimulating economic recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic and corresponding economic shocks, it also can address the sizable gender gaps that undermine women’s economic empowerment and hinder inclusive economic growth. Gender disparities in earnings not only hold back the Nigerian economy, they also represent an opportunity: closing the gender gaps in key economic sectors could yield additional gains of US9.3 billion dollars or up to US22.9 billion dollars. Women’s economic empowerment will also be key to accelerating a demographic transition and reaping the gains of a demographic dividend. Drawing on data from the most recent Nigeria General Household Survey (2018-2019), this report makes five critical contributions: (1) highlighting the gender gaps in labor force participation; (2) documenting the magnitude and drivers of the gender gaps in key economic sectors; (3) diving deep into three contextual constraints: land, livestock, and occupational segregation; (4) measuring the costs of the gender gaps; and (5) offering policy and programming recommendations of innovative options to close the gender gaps.
Madagascar Economic Update: Navigating Through the Storm

(Washington, DC, 2022) World Bank

Development prospects in Madagascar continue to be hampered by the country’s low growth potential and exposure to frequent, deep, and persistent crises. Following a recession in 2020 that was about three times deeper than in the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa, an economic recovery started in Madagascar in 2021 but was interrupted in 2022 by a sequence of domestic and international shocks. In addition to these new headwinds, the growth potential of the economy has been negatively impacted during the crisis by a retrenchment in private investment, deteriorating human capital and weakening governance. In this context, growth projections were downgraded to 2.6 percent in 2022 and to an average of 4.4 percent in 2023-2024, with the poverty rate now expected to remain close to 80 percent by 2024. This can only happen if the government kickstarts far-reaching reforms supporting private investment and job creation, better access to basic services and infrastructure, and greater resilience to shocks. Several policy priorities are highlighted as particularly urgent in this Economic Update. This report also highlights the importance of boosting public school performance following the continued deterioration in learning outcomes and advocates for a set of reforms reinforcing teachers’ selection and evaluation, salary and school grant management, redress mechanism and local community engagement.
Reconsidering Sites and Services: A Global Review

(Washington, DC, 2022) World Bank

With African cities urbanizing rapidly, there is a growing appreciation that it is time to take a fresh look at the potential for the sites and services approach to meet urban development and housing needs in these rapidly growing urban areas. The report presents guiding principles on designing sites and services projects for Task Team Leaders (TTLs) and operations teams that emerge from a study conducted by the Urban Poverty, Inclusive Cities and Housing Global Solutions Group (GSG). The report provides a clear understanding of the large scale 1st generation sites and services by assessing their design and implementation, establishing their effectiveness in meeting the set objectives, examining reasons most governments and donors abandoned the intervention, identifying factors that contributed to their success or failure in countries where they were adopted, and identifying how building technologies, land and housing markets have changed over time in support of or against sites and services. The report also presents low-carbon alternatives that can be applicable in this approach, before concluding with lessons and potential guiding principles for possible future projects.
COVID-19 Pandemic Through a Gender Lens

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06) Copley, Amy ; Decker, Alison ; Delavelle, Fannie ; Goldstein, Markus ; O'Sullivan, Michael ; Papineni, Sreelakshmi

The coronavirus (COVID-19) (coronavirus) pandemic has led to disruptions of both social and economic activities across the globe. While the early narrative described COVID-19 (coronavirus) as the "great equalizer," asserting that the virus is capable of infecting anyone, it is critical for policymakers to understand that the impacts of COVID-19 (coronavirus) will not be the same for everyone. Experience from previous epidemics suggest that COVID-19 (coronavirus) will impact groups who are most vulnerable and amplify any existing inequalities across countries, communities, households and individuals. This note focuses on the existing gender inequalities in the economic sphere in Sub-Saharan Africa and summarizes how the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic could affect women and girls disproportionately. It draws on impact evaluation research to showcase policy options to help build women's economic resilience and minimize any potential negative impacts during the pandemic and recovery.
Madagascar Digital Economy Assessment

(Washington, DC, 2019-06) World Bank

Madagascar is an island nation located in the Indian Ocean off the south-eastern coast of Africa, and the fourth-largest island in the world. Despite the country’s extensive economic opportunities and expansive natural resources, real GDP per capita is one of the lowest in the world. This situation can largely be imparted to decades of political instability and recurring crises, which have severely thwarted development efforts. The time is opportune to leverage the potential of digital technology to support a responsive government and promote a vibrant digital economy. Digital transformation has been described as the fourth industrial revolution, and if harnessed strategically, it can help reduce inequalities, and promote economic growth and high value job creation. It can also improve access to public services and to information, thereby strengthening government accountability and trust in the State. Much remains to be done in Madagascar. Madagascar has already made remarkable progress in the digital economy. Preparation of this diagnostic involved desk research on the areas comprising the five digital economy pillars, as well as several in-country missions during which members of a core research team conducted broad consultations with counterparts, government, the private sector, and user representatives.
Tanzania Economic Update, No. 6 : The Elephant in the Room - Unlocking the Potential of the Tourism Industry for Tanzanians

(Washington, DC, 2015-01) World Bank Group

The focus of this economic update is the tourism sector, which is clearly central to Tanzania s drive toward economic emergence. Riding on the country s bountiful natural assets, tourism is a fast growing sector that is not only providing jobs but is also bringing in much-needed foreign currency. This sector already benefits from substantial attention from the country s leadership, notably in the context of the national business council that recently prioritized tourism as a high growth industry and a major source of job creation. Nevertheless, more can be done to increase benefits so they can be felt more broadly across society. This update proposes three strategic directions towards achieving this goal: (i) the diversification of tourism activities, in multiple dimensions; (ii) further integration in to the sector of stakeholders such as local communities and small operators; and (iii) good governance in the management of fiscal revenues as well as in the use of natural assets. This update also assesses the current state of the Tanzanian economy. While recent developments remain globally positive with high and stable GDP growth and with the inflation rate currently in check, fiscal risks for Tanzania have been growing. During the last fiscal year, the Government missed its revenue targets and was forced to cut priority expenditures and accumulate arrears with contractors and pension funds.
South Africa Economic Update : Fiscal Policy and Redistribution in an Unequal Society

(Washington, DC, 2014-11) World Bank

The global economic recovery remains uneven, as growth in the United States is gaining momentum but appears to be at risk of stalling in the Euro Area and Japan. U.S. growth is expected to gain pace over the rest of the year and into 2015 as employment prospects boost real income growth and confidence. Following the Euro Area s exit from recession in 2013, GDP was flat in 2014, and preliminary data for the third quarter suggest slowing growth momentum amid weak domestic demand, ongoing balance sheet adjustments, a fragmented banking sector, and rising geopolitical risks. In Japan, a sales tax hike in April caused a more significant contraction in activity than expected, while exports failed to pick up.