Sector/Thematic Studies
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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.
Sub-collections of this Collection
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Country Gender Assessment -
Recent Economic Development in Infrastructure -
Energy Study -
Energy-Environment Review -
Equitable Growth, Finance & Institutions Insight -
Debt and Creditworthiness Study -
General Economy, Macroeconomics, and Growth Study -
Legal and Judicial Sector Assessment -
Gender Innovation Lab Federation Causal Evidence Series -
Health Sector Review
Items in this collection
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Publication
Continued Rebound, but Storms Cloud the Horizon: Policies to Accelerate the Productive Economy for Inclusive Growth
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-12)Kenya’s rebound from the pandemic continued in 2022. Driven by broad-based increases in services and industry, real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased by 6.0 percent Year-on-Year (y/y) in the first half (H1) of 2022. However, the agriculture sector contracted by 1.5 percent during thesame period, and with the sector contributing almost one fifth of GDP, its poor performance pulled back GDP growth by 0.3 percentage points. Notwithstanding the strong y/y creases, GDP has seen a marked sequential slowdown since the 2021 third quarter (Q3) as base effect dissipatedand business confidence weakened because of the global commodity market shock, a long regional drought and domestic political uncertainty in the run up to the August 2022 general elections. Business confidence however picked up in the wake of a smooth transition of power following a largely peaceful presidential election. Kenya’s growth prospects remain bright; however, emerging shocks are challenging the broad-based rebound. Thebaseline assumes robust growth of credit to private sector, contained COVID-19 infections, and high commodity prices favorable for Kenyan exports to boost Kenya’s growth in the medium term. However, the ongoing shocks, including the long drought in arid and semi-arid areas, rising inflation,and tighter global financial conditions, create challenges for Kenya to sustain its recovery. -
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Planning Beyond the Next Harvest: Advancing Economic Stability and Agricultural Commercialization
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-12)The 16th edition of the Malawi Economic Monitor (MEM) calls for urgent actions to stabilize the economy and enhance growth. As in the previous MEM, this includes addressing three key areas: i) Stabilizing the economy: While some progress is being made, there remains an urgent need for theimplementation of the announced macroeconomic reforms, including building foreign reserves, achieving fiscal consolidation goals for the current fiscal year, returning debt to a sustainable path through restructuring, implementing key fiscal governance and public financial management (PFM) reforms, and continuing the shift toward a more flexible exchange rate regime. ii) Stimulating agricultural export competitiveness and market-driven growth in the economy: In the context of an ongoing macroeconomic crisis, it will be essential to focus on reforms to catalyze growth. This includes a sustained emphasis on advancing agricultural commercialization, improving the productivity of firms, and increasing and diversifying exports. It will also be important to deliver on the planned reform of expensive and poorly targeted subsidies, such as those for the Affordable Input Programme (AIP), and remove distortions that constrain firms’ growth. iii) Protecting the poor and strengthening resilience: As another difficult lean season approaches, including the heightened risk of extreme weather events, it will be essential to advance implementation of the significantly expanded Social Cash Transfer Program and other assistance programs. In the context of fiscal pressures, it will also be important to continue prioritizing the deliveryof essential services to the most vulnerable, while improving the efficiency and effectiveness of social sector expenditure. -
Publication
Uganda Economic Update, 20th Edition: Unlocking the Benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Area and Regional Integration
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-12)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. -
Publication
Enhancing Links of Poor Farmers to Markets: A Practice Review for Economic Inclusion in Zambia
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-09-16)This report reviews the experiences of market linkage programs implemented globally, particularly those focused on poor smallholders, including women, as beneficiaries and farmers who participated in government social safety net schemes. The report highlights lessons learned by program implementers, governments, and other stakeholders related to efforts to link extremely poor households to productive markets. The research was commissioned to inform potential links between two World Bank projects that are currently supporting the economic inclusion of poor households in Zambia. The supporting women’s livelihood (SWL) program of the Girls’ Education and Women’s Empowerment and Livelihoods (GEWEL) Project provides a comprehensive package to promote economic inclusion among women from the poorest households. A second project, the Zambia Agribusiness and Trade Project (ZATP), enhances access to markets by linking producer organizations and high-growth small and medium-size enterprises to buyers (commercial off-takers) by facilitating productive alliances (commercial agreements between a producer organization and a commercial off-taker) and providing matching grants and technical support. A diagnostic of the status of and constraints facing SWL beneficiaries with respect to market linkages highlights the lack of upstream value chain linkages for them. The World Bank will provide technical assistance to the government of Zambia, through relevant ministries, to operationalize a mechanism, at scale, for forging market linkages by SWL households by linking them to ZATP beneficiaries. This report reviews and highlights the experiences of similar market linkages programs implemented globally, in an attempt to answer key questions raised by the program. This report describes operational considerations that may be relevant to the ZATP-GEWEL project context. It provides recommendations to guide the next steps in developing the ZATP-GEWEL pilot. -
Publication
Somalia Economic Update, June 2022: Investing in Social Protection to Boost Resilience for Economic Growth
(Washington, DC, 2022-06)Somalia is currently experiencing extreme and widespread drought which has been assessed as an unprecedented climatic event not seen in at least 40 years by meteorological agencies and humanitarian partners. After four consecutive seasons of poor rains, 90 percent of the country is experiencing severe drought conditions that include failed crop harvests, widespread water shortages, and decline in livestock production. The drought has intensified the humanitarian crisis and is driving the country into a brink of famine. Significant displacement of people is occurring as they abandoned their homes in search of food, water, and pasture for their livestock. The situation is being exacerbated by the war in Ukraine which has pushed up global food and oil prices. The higher commodity prices are disproportionally affecting the poor and exacerbating inequality. Against this challenging backdrop, the seventh edition of the World Bank’s Somalia Economic Update provides a detailed update of recent economic developments and growth outlook and makes a case for investing in Social Protection to help confront the frequent shocks that buffet the country. Overall, the Economic Update series aims to contribute to policymaking process and stimulate national dialogue on topical issues related to economic recovery and development. -
Publication
Ethiopia - Rural Income Diagnostics Study: Leveraging the Transformation in the Agri-Food System and Global Trade to Expand Rural Incomes
(Washington, DC, 2022-06)Ethiopia began the decade on a great run, with high economic growth and significant gains in poverty reduction nationally. But the gains were unevenly shared. Multiple shocks at the beginning of the new decade threaten to discontinue progress and possibly undo most of the gains made in the recent past. This rural income diagnostics (RID) study seeks to inform how to promote growth in rural incomes to accelerate poverty reduction. The objective of the RID is to examine how those who currently reside in rural areas can have higher incomes in the future, which can entail one or more members moving to urban areas. The focus is on income growth that results in higher incomes on average, but also income that is less volatile because of due consideration to effective risk reduction and management, and to ensuring that growth is sustainable. While the RID focuses only on income that is earned by rural households, it is much more detailed in its identification of the constraints because of this narrower focus. The diagnostic provides evidence to validate constraints and key areas of focus in ongoing agriculture and rural policy reforms and other relevant reforms under the Homegrown Economic Reform Agenda (HGERA), elevate the importance of some reforms where immediate action is required, and provide empirical arguments to support important policy interventions where consensus may be lacking or there is policy hesitation. -
Publication
Sierra Leone Economic Update 2022: Leveraging SME Financing and Digitization for Inclusive Growth
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-05-31)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. -
Publication
Chad Economic Update - April 2022: Resilience in Uncertain Times - Harnessing Agriculture and Livestock Value Chains
(Washington, DC, 2022-04)Chad’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 1.2 percent in 2021 - the second consecutive year of recession - driven by a two-month suspension of oil production at its Esso plants, economic disruptions due to sociopolitical insecurity, and liquidity constraints because of delays in debt restructuring. Low oil revenue, coupled with increased spending to deal with shocks, widened the fiscal deficit to 4.3 percent of GDP in 2021. The 2022-24 economic recovery is expected to be fragile and subject to significant downside risks related to recurrent and emerging sources of vulnerability. With a slow and fragile economic recovery, the adverse effects of the pandemic on poor and vulnerable households are expected to last in the short to medium term. Chad can seize emerging opportunities offered by the political transition, increasing oil prices, and debt restructuring to undertake reforms aimed at renewing its social contract and reducing long-term vulnerabilities. Stronger agricultural and livestock value chains are critical to economic diversification, sustainable growth, and food security in the medium to long term. Livestock is the economy’s most important non-oil sector and represents a major income source in the agriculture sector. The government should take bold actions to strengthen or create agricultural and livestock value chains. -
Publication
Malawi Gender Assessment
(Washington, DC, 2022-03)The government of Malawi has committed to addressing gender inequality and improving women’s wellbeing. The government has implemented multiple strategic development plans to guide policy creation and implementation. The current ongoing strategic plan is the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MDGS) III, which is aimed at alleviating poverty and fostering sustainable economic growth. In January 2021 the government of Malawi introduced the Malawi 2063 Vision, a strategic development plan which aims for low-middle income status by 2030.i To meet the goals set out in Malawi 2063, human capital development, private sector development, economic infrastructure, and environmental stability have been highlighted as critical drivers to be addressed. While the MDGS III and the Malawi 2063 Vision both include a focus on gender equality, this is largely done through a human capital and voice and agency lens, with considerably less focus on how closing gender gaps in the productive economic sectors can boost economic growth and poverty reduction. In the MDGS, gender is placed under ‘other development areas’ and grouped together with issues relating to youth, disability, and social welfare, with outcomes to be monitored including those focused on access to basic services, women’s roles in various levels of decision-making, and gender-responsive budgeting. In the Malawi 2063 Vision, gender is principally discussed under the human capital ‘enabler’ section. -
Publication
Energy Sector Baseline Study in the Kakuma-Kalobeyei Refugee-Hosting Area in Kenya
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-03)Kakuma as a marketplace, a 2018 consumer and market study of Kakuma refugee camp in northwest Kenya, estimates that Kakuma camp and its hosting community have 2,100 refugee-owned businesses and are worth 56 million dollars based on household consumption. This study provides information for businesses in the energy sector to help them assess opportunities for providing or expanding energy services in the Kakuma and Kalobeyei areas; it also provides insights to inform International Finance Corporation (IFC) interventions. The study maps the supply of and demand for energy for lighting, cooking, and productive use among households and businesses in the camp and examines the regulatory environment affecting the energy sector.