Sector/Thematic Studies

6,525 items available

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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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Equitable Growth, Finance & Institutions Insight

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 646

Uganda Economic Update, 20th Edition: Unlocking the Benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Area and Regional Integration

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-12) World Bank

The Ugandan economy will need to grow rapidly, sustainably, and broadly (i.e., in a shared manner), to reach middle-income status, lift its population out of poverty, and generate enough jobs for one of the fastest growing populations in the world. To do so, the country needs to unlock its growth potential by allocating productive factors to their most efficient uses. However, like many least developing countries, Uganda suffers from a small domestic market and distortions, which leads to misallocation of resources. As a result, international trade will play a critical role in solving some of the current challenges faced by the Ugandan economy and ultimately boosting economic growth and development. For Uganda, greater integration into global value chains will be crucial to create jobs outside of subsistence agriculture and the informal economy. Sustained growth in trade will also increase consumer welfare by expanding options and lowering prices of consumer goods. Regional trade agreements can help Uganda diversify its range of markets and products, mitigating the risk of external shocks by lessening dependence on any single trading partner. Greater intra-African trade also offers opportunities to add more value to export commodities and to leverage the potential of agribusiness to promote inclusive growth. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) offers opportunities for Uganda to deepen its access to regional markets and exploit the growth potential of the region. Expanding regional and continental trade offers significant benefits for Uganda, including potential economies of scale, new export opportunities, access to higher levels of the value chain, and forums to improve trade facilitation. However, non-tariff barriers continue to limit trade, including the discriminatory use of technical regulations, non-harmonized sanitary and phytosanitary requirements, and complex rules of origin. Security challenges such as the closure of the border between Rwanda and Uganda in 2019 has also constrained regional integration. To benefit fully from the AfCFTA, Uganda and her neighbors will need to overcome hurdles that have long weakened the effectiveness of existing regional arrangements by facilitating better trade through improved logistics, infrastructure, addressing non-tariff barriers and avoiding the politically motivated trade barriers like border closures.
Djibouti Economic Monitor, Fall 2022

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-10) World Bank

Djibouti’s economic activity has slowed since the beginning of 2022, after the rebound observed in 2021. Fiscal pressure has increased as a result of measures to mitigate the impact of the war in Ukraine, worsening drought, and a sharp increase in debt service in 2022. Rising international energy and food prices generated high year-on-year inflation. The external current account’ deteriorated further in 2022. The banking sector has remained generally stable and sound, despite the many shocks facing the Djibouti economy. Djibouti’s economy is expected to recover gradually over the medium term. There are several risks to Djibouti’s mediumterm prospects: (i) a further deterioration in the fiscal situation resulting from a continued accumulation of public debt, a continued decline in revenues, and increased tax exemptions; (ii) potential shocks in the global transport and logistics value chains (particularly important for the activities of port-related public enterprises); (iii) the continuation or possible intensification of the Ethiopian crisis; and (iv) climatic shocks, including drought and floods. To strengthen its resilience to the multiple exogenous shocks it faces, Djibouti is implementing a strategy to diversify its port activities in order to capture more value added in international trade. This strategy includes the development of a ship repair yard, a new oil terminal and a new business district at the old port. In addition, to address the impact of climate change, Djibouti is developing a national strategy for the promotion of a green economy whose activities will help generate additional income for the population through the development of ecotourism activities in addition to their beneficial impact on climate change. In this context, the development of networks and the use of digital technology offer Djibouti significant potential for creating economic and social opportunities.
Bending the Pollution Curve: An Analysis and Prioritization of Pollution Management in Ethiopia

(World Bank, Washington DC, 2022-09-14) Xie, Jian ; Tiruneh, Tamene ; Belayhun Woldemeskel, Bereket ; Lewis, Christopher Arthur ; Schlumpberger, Sven ; Croitoru, Lelia ; Guttikunda, Sarath

Pollution and environmental degradation often worsen as countries develop and industrialize. The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis suggests that, initially, economic growth increases pollution up to a certain income threshold, and then it begins to decrease pollution. Pollution reduction is not inevitable, however. As one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa, Ethiopia has been facing natural resource depletion and pollution problems which threaten to slow or impede development gains. The country must actively improve its pollution management practices and mitigate the impact of pollution on its economy, public health, and the natural environment as much as possible. This report aims to identify, diagnose, and evaluate air, water, and solid waste pollution issues facing Ethiopia and advise governments on developing and prioritizing pollution management interventions through a long-term perspective. It assesses the impacts of pollution problems and estimates the economic costs of pollution in selected study cities, which provide an economic basis for prioritizing and recommending pollution management interventions and programs. The report concludes that, with a good understanding and public awareness of pollution problems, strong political will, and sound strategies for pollution management, Ethiopia may bend the EKC and avoid the “pollute first, clean up later” development path that industrialized countries have taken—creating the chance for a cleaner environment, a healthier population, and a stronger and sustainable development progress.
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.
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.
Malawi - Gender-Based Violence Assessment: Scope, Programming, Gaps and Entry Points

(Washington, DC, 2022-03) World Bank

The objective of this assessment is to provide background information about GBV issues, policies, programming, and gaps in Malawi, for the purpose of assisting the World Bank (WB) to 1) consider how to directly support efforts to address GBV in Malawi; 2) inform strategies for integrating attention to GBV in development programming; and 3) understand the extent of GBV response programming. In addition to providing an overview of data on the scope of GBV in Malawi, the assessment investigates: legislative and policy protections related to GBV; systems and coordination mechanisms in place for addressing GBV in Malawi; and GBV response and prevention programming. The assessment analyzes key gaps across these areas of investigation based on inputs from key stakeholders as well as the desk review and concludes with several recommendations for WB to consider assisting in addressing these key gaps.
Tanzania - Re-positioning Health Service Delivery in Response to the Changing Disease Burden

(Washington, DC, 2022-03) World Bank

Over the last two decades, Tanzania has registered improvement in the health status of the population and a reduction in the overall disease burden. However, the burden of communicable diseases and maternal and child health conditions, including nutrition, remains persistently high. These conditions can be prevented and treated with existing affordable and cost-effective interventions but remain major public health problems. Besides the persistently high burden of communicable diseases, Tanzania is witnessing a growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and is at risk of a protracted, full-fledged double burden of disease. The study assessed the current and future trajectory of the disease burden, assessed the organization and performance of the health care delivery system in responding to the disease burden, and identified actions that Tanzania would need to employ to address the major causes of disease burden so that they may cease to be major public health problems.
A Study of Road Safety Lead Agencies in Africa

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-02-22) Mitullah, Winnie ; Small, Martin ; Azzouzi, Mustapha

This study of road safety lead agencies (RSLAs) in Africa takes place at an important time when serious injuries on roads are at the centre of discussions on sustainable development. RSLAs in Africa are considered to be critical vehicles for responding to road safety challenges, although how well they do this remains largely unknown. In literature, their functionality, complexity and autonomy has widely been assessed. However, there is limited attempt to link the management capacity of RSLAs to the observed road safety outcomes such as serious injuries and fatality reduction or reduction in the cost of road traffic crashes. Consequently, there is limited evidence as to whether or not lead agencies in Africa are achieving the intended goals of improving road safety status. This study sought to better understand these difficulties and the potential steps to success for RSLAs in Africa. It was commissioned by the African Development Bank and the World Bank and focuses on sixteen African countries. It is part of a global study of road safety lead agencies being undertaken by the World Health Organisation. The study is structured into four sections. Section 2 describes the two-phase methodology–desk study and preparation of the research instruments, data collection and analysis. This is followed in Section 3 by a discussion of the concept of lead agency, which lays the ground for presentation of the study results regarding lead agency performance in Section 4. Section 5 identifies lessons from the study and makes recommendations to improve lead agency performance.
Trauma Incidence and Emergency Medical Services in Malawi

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-01-19) World Bank

This report provides insights into the current situation and overall burden of trauma and RTCs in Malawi, shares what we have learned about how to effectively run a digital trauma registry in a low-resource setting, and highlights lessons learned from the implementation of the EMS pilot.